ほととぎす鳴きつと語る人づての
言の葉さへぞうれしかりける
言の葉さへぞうれしかりける
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu nakitsu to kataru hitozute no kotonoha sae zo ureshikarikeru
- English Translation
-
The little cuckoo
has sung, so someone tells me,
and by hearsay alone
even these few words of theirs
fill my heart with happiness
- Meaning
- Even the words passed on by someone else, telling me that the cuckoo has sung, fill me with joy.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Summer Poems 107
The poet has not heard the cuckoo himself, yet even the secondhand report that it has sung delights him. It shows a longing for the bird so strong that even someone's words bring joy.
From poem 104 through poem 126 in this book, poems on the cuckoo follow one another, expressing every mood around the bird: waiting for its first song, seeking it out, rejoicing at hearing it and lamenting having missed it.
First line, 'hototogisu', opens by naming the theme.
Second line, 'nakitsu to kataru', uses the perfective tsu: someone says it has sung.
Third line, 'hitozute no', means passed on through another person, showing that the poet has not heard it himself. Like 'the message of the wind' in poem 148, it sings of the joy of knowing at second hand.
Fourth line, 'kotonoha sae zo', uses the additive sae, even the words, and the particle zo binds with the attributive keru in the final line.
Final line, 'ureshikarikeru', means how joyful it is. It shares this ending with 'kotauru sae zo ureshikarikeru' in poem 120, and the two share the idea that not the song itself but even what surrounds it gives delight.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Hototogisu sugata wa mizu ni yadoredomo koe wa utsuranu mono ni zo arikeru
- Next Poem
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Hototogisu otowa no yama no fumoto made tazuneshi koe o koyoi kiku kana