Kokinshu #155

(from the same contest)

    Even the blooms of
the orange tree where you lodged
    haven't withered yet --
so why is it, O cuckoo,
your voice has faded away?

—4 October 2011

Original by Ôe no Chisato. A competent execution of an utterly typical conceit. Compare to #141, from the other shoulder season. So is this the end of cuckoo season at last ... ?


yadori seshi
hanatachibana mo
karenaku ni
nado hototogisu
koe taenuramu

---L.