初声を聞きての後は郭公
待つも心の頼もしきかな
待つも心の頼もしきかな
- Roma-ji
-
Hatsukoe o kikite no nochi wa hototogisu matsu mo kokoro no tanomoshiki kana
- English Translation
-
Once I have listened
to your first call of the year,
O cuckoo,
even waiting for you fills
my heart with sure reliance.
- Meaning
- Once I have heard the cuckoo's first call, even waiting for it again leaves my heart feeling assured.
- Commentary
-
One Hundred Poems 1467
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten Poems on the Cuckoo"
The fifth of the ten poems on the cuckoo. Once he has heard the first call, waiting again carries the confidence that the bird will surely come.
It contrasts the unease of waiting before hearing with the calm of waiting after. Where 1465 spoke of those who wait even after hearing, this poem regards that later waiting as something reassuring.
First line, “hatsukoe o”: the first cuckoo call heard in the year.
Second line, “kikite no nochi wa”: after hearing it, echoing “kikite mo” in 1465.
Third line, “hototogisu”: the bird awaited.
Fourth line, “matsu mo kokoro no”: even in waiting, the heart.
Fifth line, “tanomoshiki kana”: kana marks exclamation, "how assured it feels."
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
-
Tokoro kara kikigataki ka to hototogisu sato o kaete mo matan to zo omou
- Next Poem
-
Samidare no harema tazunete hototogisu kumoi ni tsutau koe kikoyu nari