Kokinshu #152

(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.