When she was on a pilgrimage to Kamo, someone remarked one dawn that a cuckoo was calling, and as the treetops in Kataoka seemed particularly fine…
郭公こゑまつほどはかたをかのもりのしづくにたちやぬれまし
hototogisu
koe matsu hodo wa
kataoka no
mori no shizuku ni
tachi ya nuremashi | The cuckoo’s
Call-while we await it
In Kataoka
Forest, I wish the dew drops
Would wet us where we stand… |
Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部
Created with Soan.
Composed in the conception of hearing a cuckoo at dawn.
時鳥鳴きつるかたをながむればたゞ有明の月ぞのこれる
Fototogisu
nakituru kata wo
nagamureba
tada ariake no
tuki zo nokoreru |
A cuckoo
Calls from yonder –
Gazing there,
Only the daybreak
Moon remains. |
The Minister of the Right [Fujiwara no Sanesada]
Composed on the cuckoo in an idle moment.
鳴きつとも誰にかいはむほとゝぎす影よりほかに人しなければ
nakitu tomo
tare ni ka iFamu
Fototogisu
kage yori Foka ni
Fito si nakereba |
You have called,
Yet who is there to tell,
O cuckoo,
For save my form
There is no one. |
Minamoto no Toshiyori
源俊頼
Composed on the cuckoo.
時鳥こゝろも空にあくがれて夜がれがちなるみ山邊の里
Fototogisu
kokoro mo sora ni
akugarete
yogaregatinaru
miyamabe no sato |
O, cuckoo
Your heart is in the skies
A’yearning;
Not paying night visits
To this dwelling by the mountain’s edge. |
Fujiwara no Akisuke
Composed on the first day of the Fourth Month.
櫻いろにそめし衣をぬぎかへてやま郭公けふよりぞまつ
sakura iro ni
somesi koromo wo
nugikaFete
yama Fototogisu
keFu yori zo matu |
Pale pink cherry
Coloured clothes
I put aside and
The mountain cuckoo
Await from this day. |
Izumi Shikibu
和泉式部
Topic unknown.
郭公鳴くや五月の短夜もひとりし寢れば明かしかねつも
Fototogisu
naku ya satuki no
mizika yo mo
Fitorishi nureba
akashikanetu mo |
The cuckoo
Calling in the Fifth Month’s
Brief space of night:
If one sleeps alone,
The dawn is harsh, indeed. |
Anonymous
On hearing a cuckoo, the year after a Prince to whom she had given birth had died.
しでの山越えて來つらん郭公戀しき人の上語らなん
side no yama
koete kituran
Fototogisu
koFisiki Fito no
uFe kataranan |
The mount of death:
Oh, that you’d come from there,
Cuckoo.
Then of my darling boy,
You could give me news. |
Ise
伊勢
From a folding screen in the Engi period.
山里に知る人も哉郭公鳴きぬと聞かば告げに來るがに
yamazato ni
siru Fito mo gana
Fototogisu
nakinu to kikaba
tuge ni kuru ga ni |
Oh, that in the mountains
Lived someone that I knew!
The cuckoo
Would he hear call
And then come and tell me! |
Tsurayuki
貫之
When it had been raining for a long time in the Fifth Month, a man went to visit a woman he had not seen for some time; she composed:
つれづれとながむる空の郭公とふにつけてぞ音はなかれける
turedure to
nagamuru sora no
Fototogisu
toFu ni tukete zo
ne Fa nakarekeru |
Aimlessly
Gazing upon the skies;
A cuckoo
Comes calling and
Now hear the cries! |
Anonymous
Topic unknown.
木がくれて五月待つとも郭公羽ならはしに枝うつりせよ
kogakurete
satuki matu tomo
Fototogisu
Fane naraFasi ni
eda uturiseyo |
Hidden ’mongst the trees
Awaiting the Fifth Month, yet,
O, Little Cuckoo,
At least try to spread your wings
And hop from branch to branch. |
Ise (d. ca. 939)
伊勢
'Simply moving and elegant'
