山近く家居しをれば時鳥
鳴く初声を我のみぞ聞く
鳴く初声を我のみぞ聞く
- Roma-ji
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Yama chikaku iei shi oreba hototogisu naku hatsukoe o ware nomi zo kiku
- English Translation
-
Close beside the hills
I have made my dwelling place,
so the hototogisu's
first call as it starts to sing—
I alone am there to hear.
- Meaning
- Because I live close to the hills, I alone hear the first call of the hototogisu.
- Commentary
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Summer Poems 143
Headnote: "The hototogisu at a mountain dwelling"
The poet rejoices that, living close to the hills, he alone can hear the hototogisu's first call before anyone else. The poem holds the pleasure peculiar to a mountain dwelling and a touch of pride.
Kamo no Mabuchi marked this poem with a circle. The Ruijū and Teika texts differ in line 2, and the Teika text gives line 4 as "its first call, as it sings."
Line 1, "close beside the hills," shows that the dwelling is near the mountains, presenting the topic "mountain dwelling."
Line 2: iei means making one's home, and ba after the evaluative form expresses a cause.
Line 3 sets the hototogisu as the first bird heard from the hills.
Line 4: hatsukoe, "first call," is the same word that opens 141; the first song longed for in the sequence on waiting is at last heard here.
Line 5 concludes the binding particle zo with the attributive kiku, stressing the joy of being the only one to hear.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
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Natsugoromo tachishi toki yori ashihiki no yama hototogisu nakanu hi zo naki
- Next Poem
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Yūyami no tazutazushiki ni hototogisu koe uraganashi michi ya madoeru