Tag Archives: cuckoo

KKS XVI: 849

During the summer of the year following Lord Fujiwara no Takatsune’s death, he heard a cuckoo sing and composed this:

郭公けさなくこゑにおどろけば君を別れし時にぞありける

Fototogisu
kesa naku kowe ni
odorokeba
kimi wo wakaresi
toki ni zo arikeru
The cuckoo’s
Calling cry this morning
Startled me, for
You left us
At just this time.

Tsurayuki
貫之

KKS III: 161

Composed when some courtiers, drinking wine the Attendance Chamber, called him in and told him to compose a poem on ‘waiting for the cuckoo.’

ほととぎすこゑもきこえず山びこはほかになくねをこたへやはせぬ

 

Fototogisu
kowe mo kikoezu
yamabiko Fa
Foka ni naku ne wo
kotaFe ya Fa senu
The cuckoo’s
Call is silent-
But an echo
Of a song sung elsewhere,
Might not that return to us?

Mitsune
躬恒