ほととぎす尋ぬるだにもあるものを
待つ人いかで声を聞くらむ
待つ人いかで声を聞くらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Hototogisu tazunuru dani mo aru mono o matsu hito ikade koe o kikuramu
- English Translation
-
O little cuckoo,
when even one who seeks you
may fail to hear,
how can one who only waits
ever come to hear your voice
- Meaning
- Even those who go seeking the cuckoo may fail to hear it; how, then, could someone who only waits ever hear its voice?
- Commentary
-
Book Two Summer Poems 125
Even those who go out in search of the cuckoo may fail to hear it, so how could someone who merely waits at home ever hear it? Comparing the one who seeks with the one who waits, the poem expresses how hard it is to hear the bird.
It resonates with poem 117 in this book, where the cuckoo passes by unaware of the house of the one who waits, voicing the same lament that waiting alone is not enough, here through the contrast with the seeker.
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, 'tazunuru dani mo', uses dani, which cites a lesser case to imply a greater: even when one seeks it.
Third line, 'aru mono o', is concessive: though there are times when even then one cannot hear, the failure left unsaid.
Fourth line, 'matsu hito ikade', means how could one who only waits, the interrogative ikade answering ramu in the final line.
Final line, 'koe o kikuramu', uses the conjectural ramu, asking rhetorically how such a person could hear the voice.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Wagimoko ni ausaka yama no hototogisu akureba kaeru sora ni naku nari
- Next Poem
-
Hototogisu kumoji ni madou koe su nari oyami dani seyo samidare no sora