Tag Archives: cuckoo

Sahyōe no suke sadafumi uta’awase 5

The End of Summer

Left

なくこゑはするものからに身はむなしあなおぼつかなうつせみのよや

naku koe wa
suru mono kara ni
mi wa munashi
ana obotsukana
utsusemi no yo ya
Their voices sing
And yet
Their flesh is empty—
O, how strange is
A cicada shell world!

Tadamine
9

Right (Win)

ほととぎすをちかへりなけうなゐこがうちたれがみのさみだれのこゑ

hototogisu
ochikaeri nake
unaiko ga
uchitaregami no
samidare no koe
A cuckoo
Calls again and again;
A child’s shoulder-brushing
Hair dangling down:
The song of a summer shower.

Mitsune
10

Sahyōe no suke sadafumi uta’awase 4

The Beginning of Summer

Left

ふるさとはこだかけれどもきみならぬほととぎすにもうとまれにけり

furusato wa
kodakakeredomo
kimi naranu
hototogisu ni mo
utomarenikeri
Around this ancient estate
The trees grow high, yet
Not by you alone,
By the cuckoo, too
Am I despised.

Tadamine
7

Right (Win)

やまがつのかきほにさけるうのはなはたがしろたへのころもかけしぞ

yamagatsu no
kakiho ni sakeru
u no hana wa
ta ga shirotae no
koromo kakeshi zo
Along the mountain man’s
Lattice fence bloom
Deutzia:
Whose white mulberry
Robes are hung there?

Mitsune
8

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 37

Left

おしなべて五月のそらを見渡せば草葉も水もみどりなりけり

oshinabete
satsuki no sora o
miwataseba
kusaba mo mizu mo
midori narikeri
When the entire
Fifth Month sky
I gaze across,
Blades of grass and water, too,
Are green.

72[1]

Right

くるるかとみれば明けぬる夏の夜をあかずとや鳴く山郭公

kururu ka to
mireba akenuru
natsu no yo o
akazu to ya naku
yamahototogisu
Did you think ’twas sunset?
When a glance would show the breaking dawn
Of this summer night-
Unsated by your song, do you sing on,
Cuckoo in the mountains?

73[2]


[1] Shinchokusenshū III: 152/Kokin rokujō I: 89

[1] Kokinshū III: 157, attributed to Mibu no Tadamine/Shinsen man’yōshū 57/Kokin rokujō VI: 4437

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 35

Left

夏の日を天雲しばしかくさなむぬるほどもなく明くる夜にせん

natsu no hi o
amagumo shibashi
kakusanamu
nuru hodo mo naku
akuru yo ni sen
The summer sun is
Briefly by heaven’s clouds
Concealed!
No time to sleep in
The bright night they’ve made!

68

Right

郭公なきつる夏の山辺にはくつていださぬ人やすむらむ

hototogisu
nakitsuru natsu no
yamabe ni wa
kutsute idasanu
hito ya sumuramu
A cuckoo
Singing in summer
On the mountainside:
Does a man who will not reveal
The price of shoes live there?

69

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 30

Left

夏の日を暮らし侘びぬる蝉のまにわがなきそふるこゑはきこゆや[1]

natsu no hi o
kurashiwabinuru
semi no ma ni
wa ga nakisouru
koe wa kikoyu ya
The summer sun
They know not how to endure,
So with the cicadas
My sobbing
Voice do you hear?

59

Right

恨みつつとどむる人のなければや山時鳥うかれでてなく

uramitsutsu
todomuru hito no
nakereba ya
yama hototogisu
ukaredete naku
How I constantly despise
The one who’s staying here
If he were gone, would
The mountain cuckoo
Have aimlessly left his home to sing?

60


[1] The phrase semi no (‘the cicadas’) is missing from the text of the contest, but has been suggested by later scholarship.