夏衣たちし時よりあしひきの
山郭公鳴かぬ日ぞなき
山郭公鳴かぬ日ぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Natsugoromo tachishi toki yori ashihiki no yama hototogisu nakanu hi zo naki
- English Translation
-
Summer robes were cut,
and from that time when summer rose,
from the footsore hills
the mountain hototogisu—
not a day it has not sung.
- Meaning
- Ever since summer robes were cut and summer began, not a day has passed without the mountain hototogisu singing.
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 142
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Waiting for the hototogisu"
The poet says that since he put on summer robes at the start of summer, not a day has passed without the mountain hototogisu singing, and the poem closes the sequence on waiting for the bird. It captures the early-summer scene of the bird calling day after day as the season arrives.
The Ruijū and Teika texts give the last line as "not a day I have not waited," meaning there is no day without waiting. This edition follows the source text's "not a day it has not sung."
Line 1, "summer robes," is the same opening as 134, answering that poem of summer's beginning.
Line 2: tachi is a pivot word meaning both "cut" the robes and summer "rising" or beginning.
Line 3, ashihiki no, is a pillow word for "mountain."
Line 4 repeats "mountain hototogisu" from line 4 of the preceding poem, 141, so the mountain bird recurs within the sequence.
Line 5, "not a day it has not sung," concludes the binding particle zo with the attributive naki.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
-
Hatsukoe o kiku to wa nashi ni kyō mo mata yama hototogisu matazu shimo arazu
- Next Poem
-
Yama chikaku iei shi oreba hototogisu naku hatsukoe o ware nomi zo kiku