Kikazariki yayoi no yama no hototogisu haru kuwawareru toshi ni wa arishika

聞かざりき弥生の山の郭公
春加はれる年にはありしか

Roma-ji: Kikazariki yayoi no yama no hototogisu haru kuwawareru toshi ni wa arishika
English Translation: I'd never heard it—
in the hills of the third month
the cuckoo's calling;
a year with an added spring,
so then, this is what it was.
Meaning: Never before had I heard a cuckoo in the hills in the third month—so this, then, was a year with an extra month of spring.
Commentary: Spring Poems 131

Headnote: "In a year with two first months, on hearing a cuckoo sing in the third month"
In a year with an intercalary first month, the poet heard a cuckoo sing in the third month and composed this poem. Because of the extra month the calendar lagged behind the seasons, so although it was still the third month it was in fact already summer, and he is surprised to hear the cuckoo, a summer bird. It wittily captures the gap between calendar and season. Kamo no Mabuchi said this way of turning back to the upper verse is not found in the Man'yōshū.
In the Ruijū text the headnote ends "…on hearing a cuckoo in the third month, I composed," and the Ruijū and Teika texts read the last line toshi wa arishikado. The base text's last line has an alternative reading noted beside it, but the main text is followed here.

Line 1 means "I had never heard it," closing with the past ki, and the poem pauses here.
Line 2: yayoi is the third lunar month, the last month of spring.
Line 3 names the cuckoo, the herald of summer, which should not sing in the third month.
Line 4 means a year in which spring gained a month through intercalation.
Line 5 means "so it was such a year," the turning back that Mabuchi commented on. Where 5 sang of snow still falling in spring, here a summer bird sings in spring, the opposite gap, forming a pair at the beginning and end of the section.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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