Kokinshu #138
Sunday, 25 September 2011 09:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer (Topic unknown.)
By the Fifth Month,
even your singing will have
gotten tiresome.
O cuckoo, would that I hear
your voice before that season!
satsuki koba
naki mo furinamu
hototogisu
madashiki hodo no
koe o kikabaya
---L.
By the Fifth Month,
even your singing will have
gotten tiresome.
O cuckoo, would that I hear
your voice before that season!
—17 September 2011
Original by Ise. Technically, she says "If the Fifth Month comes," which is more readily understood as "when/by the time the Fifth Month comes," even though the latter sense had a separate conjugation at the time. Which only goes to show why the "if" and "when" meanings of -ba collapsed together in modern Japanese. More literally the singing will be "old," but the connotation is "wearisome" -- like the European cuckoo, its song can be maddeningly repetitive.satsuki koba
naki mo furinamu
hototogisu
madashiki hodo no
koe o kikabaya
---L.