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
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
Composed on cuckoos.
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 Fa kodakeredomo kimi naranu Fototogisu ni mo utomarenikeri Around this ancient estate The trees grow high, yet Not by you alone, By the cuckoo, to Am I despised.
Mibu no Tadamine
みやまいでてまづはつこゑはほととぎすよぶかくまたむわがやどになけ
miyama idete mazu hatsukoe wa hototogisu yobu kaku matamu wa ga yado ni nake Emerging from the mountains’ depths, To begin, you give your first cry, O, cuckoo! Thus I would wait and call you To sing at my own dwelling!
Masakata 雅固
人ならばまててふべきをほととぎすふたこゑとだにきかですぎぬる
hito naraba mate chōbeki o hototogisu futa koe to dani kikade suginuru Were you a man, ‘Wait!’ is what I’d tell you, O, cuckoo! For without even a second call For me to hear have you passed by.
Fujiwara no Motozane
客尓為而 妻恋為良思 霍公鳥 神名備山尓 左夜深而鳴
旅にして妻恋すらし霍公鳥神なび山にさ夜更けて鳴く
tabi ni site tuma kopisurasi pototogisu kamunabiyama ni sayo pukete naku On your journey You must love your wife as I O, cuckoo, Upon sacred Kaminabi Mountain That you cry at brief night’s dawn…
Anonymous
月夜よみ鳴く霍公鳥見まく欲り我れ草取れり見む人もがも
tukuyo yomi naku pototogisu mimakupori ware kusa toreri mimu pito mogamo On a fair moonlit night A calling cuckoo Did I wish to see, so I went gathering grasses— If only there was one to see me!
Anonymous
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
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
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.
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