Kokinshu #152

[lnhammer]

(Topic unknown.)

    Hey, wait a moment --
I want to send a message,
    O mountain cuckoo:
say, "I've wearied of living
within this world of ours."

—1 October 2011

Original by Mikuni no Machi, daughter of Ki no Natora and a concubine of Emperor Ninmyô, probably identifiable as a use-name of Ki no Kaneko, also Natora's daughter and Ninmyô's concubine. Her birth date is unknown, but under the Machi name she was dismissed as concubine in 845, and Kaneko's son Prince Tsuneyasu (see #95) must have been an adult when he took orders upon Ninmyô's death in 850; Kaneko died in 869. She has one poem in the Kokinshu, as do Tsuneyasu (#781), Machi/Kaneko's sister (#930, mother of #Koretaka), Kaneko's brother (#419), and Machi's son (#769). ¶ The cuckoo is again someone to command, though now the departure is wanted -- and the speaker wants to as well. Cuckoos were believed to travel between this and the after world, but it's also possible that she's sending a message to a hermit in the mountains.


yayoya mate
yamahototogisu
kotozutemu
ware yo no naka ni
sumi-wabinu to yo

---L.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Ha, that "Hey, wait a moment" in your translation stream totally captures the sudden WTF moment of a poem that starts with "やよや" in the Kokinshu. It's like reading the Sonnets and then there's a first line that starts with "Argle blargle" or something.

That said, I've never* thought much of this poem (the original, I mean), because the second part is so unclear it lacks any force whatsoever. We're all wearied of living within this world of ours, Mikuni no Machi; so what? Who are you telling this to? Are they weary of it too? Are you accusing them of wearying you? Are you envious of their detachment up in the mountains with the cuckoos? (Is that even where the cuckoo is going next?) And seriously, "Yayo　ya"?

It may be a failure of interpretation on my part (for example I may be missing some sublime wordplay?) but I honestly can't get much out of it. --Matt

* And by "never" I mean the time I read it slogging through the entire KKS and now, the only two times I have given it any thought.

[lnhammer]

What gets me is the disjoint between the strong yayoya (or is it really two words?), then the relatively weak desire of -mu, then the sudden brusk to yo at the end (like she cares enough to be imperious but not, yanno, an actual verb with that command). Who she's sending this to is also a puzzler, and what the recipient is supposed to do about this.

I am amused at McCullough's rather mannered version of this: "Just a moment, please, / you cuckoo of the mountains. / I want to give you / this message to deliver: / "I am weary of this world."" It's not the manner I hear, but the consistency does set it off from the ones around it.

---L.