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Caged, the little creature will remain silent and die. Poets often wait vainly in the dew, from sunset till dawn, to hear the strange cry which has inspired so many exquisite verses. But those who have heard found it so mournful that they have likened it to the cry of one wounded suddenly to death. Hototogisu Chi ni naku koe wa Ariake no Tsuki yori kokani Kiku hito mo nashi.
Once in each year it comes; the time of its coming is the end of the fifth month, by the antique counting of moons; and the peasants, hearing its voice, say one to the other, 'Now must we sow the rice; for the Shide-no-taosa is with us. The word taosa signifies the head man of a mura, or village, as villages were governed in the old days; but why the hototogisu is called the taosa of Shide I do not know.
33 By honzon is here meant the sacred kakemono, or picture, exposed to public view in the temples only upon the birthday of the Buddha, which is the eighth day of the old fourth month. Honzon also signifies the principal image in a Buddhist temple. 34 A solitary voice! Did the Moon cry? Twas but the hototogisu.
Only at night, the people say, is its voice heard, and most often upon the nights of great moons; and it chants while hovering high out of sight, wherefore a poet has sung of it thus: Hito koe wa. Tsuki ga naitaka Hototogisu! And another has written: Hototogisu Nakitsuru kata wo Nagamureba, Tada ariake no Tsuki zo nokoreru. The dweller in cities may pass a lifetime without hearing the hototogisu.
But rarely, very rarely, a far stranger cry is heard in those trees at night, a voice as of one crying in pain the syllables 'ho-to-to-gi-su. The cry and the name of that which utters it are one and the same, hototogisu. It is a bird of which weird things are told; for they say it is not really a creature of this living world, but a night wanderer from the Land of Darkness.
The sketchy nature of Japanese poetry, especially in this five-line stanza, may be illustrated further by two poems quoted by Prof. The first: Hototogisu Nakitsuru kata wo Nagamureba Tada ari-ake no Tsuki zo nokoreru is literally translated by Professor Chamberlain as follows: "When I gaze towards the place where the cuckoo has been singing, nought remains but the moon in the early dawn."
As for his impetuousness, his character has been well depicted side by side with that of Hideyoshi and Ieyasu in three couplets familiar to all Japanese. These couplets represent Nobunaga as saying: Nakaneba korosu Hototogisu. By Hideyoshi the same idea is conveyed thus: Nakashite miyo Hototogisu. Whereas, Ieyasu puts the matter thus: Nakumade mato Hototogisu.
35 When I gaze towards the place where I heard the hototogisu cry, lol there is naught save the wan morning moon. 36 Save only the morning moon, none heard the hearts-blood cry of the hototogisu. 37 A sort of doughnut made of bean flour, or tofu. 38 Kite, kite, let me see you dance, and to-morrow evening, when the crows do not know, I will give you a rat. 39 O tardy crow, hasten forward!
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