The only record of this poetry match’s existence is in the headnote to the poems in Motozane-shū (180, 181), which simply reads ‘From a poetry match’. Hagitani (1958, 418) suggests that, as these poems are recorded separately in this work from Motozane’s other poems for poetry matches, they are most likely from a different contest, the details of which have now been lost. Given the topic of ‘Cuckoos’, however, it most likely will have taken place in the late spring or early summer.
うのはなの影にかくれて今日までぞ山時鳥声はをしまむ
unohana no kage ni kakurete kyō made zo yama hototogisu koe wa oshimamu
Within the deutzia’s Shade concealed Until today The mountain cuckoo Seems to regret his song.
1
いまよりは声なをしみそ時鳥五月待つまのほどぞあるらし
ima yori wa koe na oshimi so hototogisu satsuki matsu ma no hodo zo arurashi
From now on Your song do not regret, O, cuckoo, For to await the Fifth Month Some time there still seems to be!
shigaraki no toyama no sue no hototogisu ta ga sato chikaki hatsune naruran
In Shigaraki At the foothills’ end A cuckoo By whose estate Might let out his first cry?
Takasuke 41
Right
橘のにほひを空に尋ねきて山時鳥なかぬ日ぞなき
tachibana no nioi o sora ni tazunekite yamahototogisu nakanu hi zo naki
Orange blossom’s familiar Scent within the skies I seek out, while The mountain cuckoo Fails to sing on not a single day…
Shimotsuke 42
The Left poem’s ‘near whose estate does it first call’ does not sound bad. The Right’s poem, too, seems to have no faults to mention, yet the Left still wins by a hair.
ware kikite hito ni wa tsugeku hototogisu omou shiruku mazu koko ni nake
I listen, and To folk will tell, O, cuckoo, so Where I am lost in thoughts of you, Sing here first!
Mitsune 47
Right
かたをかのあしたのはらをとよむまでやまほととぎすいまぞなくなる
kataoka no ashita no hara o toyomu made yamahototogisu ima zo nakunaru
Until in Kataoka The plain of Ashita Does resound The mountain cuckoos Are singing now!
48
When ‘Until in Kataoka / The plain of Ashita / Does resound’ had been recited, His Majesty laughed, saying, ‘It would be impossible for it to resound,’ so the final part of the poem was not recited and it lost.
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?
