郭公聞けども飽かず橘の
花散る里の五月雨のころ
花散る里の五月雨のころ
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu kikedomo akazu tachibana no hana chiru sato no samidare no koro
- English Translation
-
Hototogisu—
though I listen, I can't tire:
where the orange trees
scatter blossoms on the village
in the time of fifth-month rains.
- Meaning
- However long I listen to the hototogisu I never tire of it—in the village where orange blossoms fall, in the season of the early-summer rains.
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 159
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The hototogisu"
The poet says he never tires of hearing the hototogisu in a village where the mandarin-orange blossoms fall, in the season of the early-summer rains. Gathering the fragrance of the tachibana, the rains, and the hototogisu, emblems of early summer, into one poem, he savors the season's mood to the full.
This poem was included in the Shingosen Wakashū. The Ruijū text gives the headnote "Composed on the hototogisu." Kamo no Mabuchi gave it a double circle and cited the Man'yōshū phrase about visiting the village where the orange blossoms fall.
Line 1 sets the bird down once more in the last of the poems under the topic "The hototogisu" that run from 149.
Line 2 means "though I listen, I never tire," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3 introduces the tachibana, which bears fragrant white flowers in early summer. The next poems, 160 and 161, take the tachibana as their topic, so this poem bridges the topics from hototogisu to tachibana.
Line 4, "the village where the blossoms fall," draws on the Man'yōshū phrase.
Line 5 ends on a noun, giving the season and leaving a lingering mood. Through inversion, the time and place of unending listening are given last.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
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Minahito no na o shimo yobu ka hototogisu nakunaru koe no sato o toyomuru
- Next Poem
-
Inishie o shinobu to nashi ni furusato no yūbe no ame ni niou tachibana