ほととぎすいかばかりなる契りにて
心尽くさで人の聞くらん
心尽くさで人の聞くらん
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu ikabakari naru chigiri nite kokoro tsukusade hito no kikuran
- English Translation
-
O you cuckoo,
by what bond, how deep a tie,
do others hear you
without wearing out their hearts
in the waiting as I do?
- Meaning
- O cuckoo, by what deep bond from a former life do others hear your voice without wearing their hearts out in waiting?
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 194
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the cuckoo"
This is the second poem on the topic of the cuckoo. The poet, though he exhausts his heart in waiting, cannot hear the cuckoo, while others seem to hear it without any trouble. By what deep bond from a former life can that be, he wonders, envying them.
In contrast to 184 of this book, where he lamented that the cuckoo makes one spend one's heart only in waiting, this poem looks at those who hear it without such effort, setting the one who waits against those who hear without waiting.
First line, “hototogisu”: the bird whose voice others hear.
Second line, “ikabakari naru”: how great, asking about degree.
Third line, “chigiri nite”: chigiri is a bond from a former life, a karmic tie, reflecting a Buddhist sense of fate.
Fourth line, “kokoro tsukusade”: de is negative conjunctive, without spending their hearts in waiting; it stands opposite tsukusasete in the third line of 184.
Fifth line, “hito no kikuran”: ran is the auxiliary of present conjecture, answering ikabakari to wonder why they hear it.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
-
Hototogisu omoi mo wakanu hitokoe o kikitsu to ikaga hito ni kataran
- Next Poem
-
Kataraishi sono yo no koe wa hototogisu ika naru yo ni mo wasuren mono ka