Hototogisu nabete kiku ni wa nizarikeri furuki yamabe no akatsuki no koe

郭公なべて聞くには似ざりけり
古き山辺の暁の声

Roma-ji: Hototogisu nabete kiku ni wa nizarikeri furuki yamabe no akatsuki no koe
English Translation: O cuckoo,
unlike what one hears each day
is your voice indeed—
by an old and weathered mountain
the voice heard before the dawn.
Meaning: The cuckoo's voice is nothing like what one usually hears—the voice heard before dawn by an old mountainside.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1469

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten Poems on the Cuckoo"
The seventh of the ten poems on the cuckoo. The cuckoo heard at daybreak by an old mountainside sounds altogether different from its usual call.
It shows through the pairing of an old mountainside and the hour before dawn how the same bird's voice can take on a wholly different feeling. Against the voice crossing the sky in the preceding poem, this is a voice ringing at dawn by the mountain, and it connects with 1466, which wondered whether place changed how the bird is heard.

First line, “hototogisu”: the subject of the poem.
Second line, “nabete kiku ni wa”: nabete means generally, "from what one ordinarily hears."
Third line, “nizarikeri”: keri marks exclamation, "it is not alike"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “furuki yamabe no”: by an old mountainside, echoing “fukaki yamabe ni” in the next poem.
Fifth line, “akatsuki no koe”: the voice heard before dawn, ending on a noun; the inversion shows what is unlike.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
Prev Poem: Samidare no harema tazunete hototogisu kumoi ni tsutau koe kikoyu nari
Next Poem: Hototogisu fukaki yamabe ni sumu kai wa kozue ni tsuzuku koe o kiku kana