聞きもあへず漕ぎぞ別るるほととぎす
我が心なる船出ならねば
我が心なる船出ならねば
- Roma-ji
-
Kiki mo aezu kogi zo wakaruru hototogisu waga kokoro naru funade naraneba
- English Translation
-
Before I have heard
all your song, I row away
O little cuckoo,
for this setting out to sea
is not a thing of my own choosing
- Meaning
- Before I can hear your song to the end, I must row away and leave you, cuckoo, for this voyage is not mine to decide.
- Commentary
-
Book Two Summer Poems 122
Before he can hear the cuckoo's song to the end, the poet must row away and part from it, for the voyage is not his to command. The poem expresses the regret of one bound by the demands of travel.
Where the preceding poem, 121, says the place where the cuckoo sings is the very harbor, this poem sings of rowing away and leaving the song behind, and the two form a pair.
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, 'kiki mo aezu', uses au, to carry through to the end: without hearing it through. The line has an extra syllable.
Second line, 'kogi zo wakaruru', is a binding in which zo closes on the attributive wakaruru, stressing the rowing away. The poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, 'hototogisu', is the one parted from, placed as an address.
Fourth line, 'waga kokoro naru', means as my heart would have it.
Final line, 'funade naraneba', adds ba to ne, the realis of the negative zu: since it is not such a voyage, showing circumstances beyond the poet's control.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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Yama chikaku ura kogu fune wa hototogisu naku watari koso tomari narikere
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Hototogisu kumo no taema ni moru tsuki no kage honoka ni mo naki wataru kana