ほととぎす松にかかりて明かすかな
藤の花とや人は見るらむ
藤の花とや人は見るらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu matsu ni kakarite akasu kana fuji no hana to ya hito wa miruramu
- English Translation
-
O little cuckoo,
perched upon the pine tree's branch
you pass the whole night;
perhaps for wisteria blooms
others take you as they look
- Meaning
- The cuckoo spends the whole night perched on the pine. Do people, seeing it there, take it for wisteria hanging on the pine?
- Commentary
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Book Two Summer Poems 116
Seeing the cuckoo pass the night perched on a pine, the poet wonders whether people will take it for wisteria draped over the tree. Drawing on the classic pairing of pine and wisteria, the poem wittily likens the cuckoo resting on the pine to wisteria blossoms.
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.
The author, Shirakawa-in, is Emperor Shirakawa, the seventy-second sovereign. The first son of Emperor Go-Sanjō, he continued to rule as a retired emperor after abdicating, and he commanded Minamoto no Toshiyori to compile this anthology.
First line, 'hototogisu', opens by naming the theme.
Second line, 'matsu ni kakarite', means perched on the pine; kakaru also evokes wisteria hanging on a pine, leading to 'wisteria' in the fourth line.
Third line, 'akasu kana', means it spends the night till dawn, with the exclamatory kana. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, 'fuji no hana to ya', means as wisteria, with the questioning particle ya. Pine and wisteria have long been paired in poetry.
Final line, 'hito wa miruramu', uses the conjectural ramu, closing the binding with ya in the fourth line.
- Author
- Retired Emperor Shirakawa
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Odorokasu koe nakariseba hototogisu mada utsutsu ni wa kikazu zo aramashi
- Next Poem
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Matsu hito no yado o ba shirade hototogisu ochi no yamabe o nakite sugu nari