皆人の名をしも呼ぶか郭公
鳴くなる声の里をとよむる
鳴くなる声の里をとよむる
- Roma-ji
-
Minahito no na o shimo yobu ka hototogisu nakunaru koe no sato o toyomuru
- English Translation
-
Is it calling out
the names of each and every one?
The hototogisu—
the voice I hear it singing
makes the whole village resound.
- Meaning
- Is the hototogisu calling everyone by name? Its singing voice rings through the whole village.
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 158
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The hototogisu"
Because the hototogisu's song echoes so loudly through the village, the poet playfully wonders whether it is calling everyone by name. Likening the bird's cry to a voice calling people, he depicts the lively song that fills the village.
According to the source's note, the Ruijū and Teika texts differ in line 2, and the Teika text also differs in the last line. Because characters in lines 2 and 5 of the source text consulted could not be read, they have been supplied from the Teika text's na o shimo yobu ka and sato o toyomuru.
Line 1 means "all people."
Line 2: shimo is emphatic and ka interrogative, and the poem pauses here.
Line 3 sets the hototogisu as the caller.
Line 4: naru is the attributive of nari, which infers from sound, marking the voice that is heard.
Line 5 means "makes the village resound." The voice that passed alone along the hills in 152 here becomes a voice filling the village, contrasting a hushed call with a resounding one.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Satsukiyama kodakaki mine no hototogisu tasogaredoki no sora ni nakunari
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Hototogisu kikedomo akazu tachibana no hana chiru sato no samidare no koro