Short Nights (短夜)

Alas this mother is no more

My mother’s letter has arrived.
In the wave-surrounded east,
day breaks through the pines of Hamadera, [1]
the cuckoo of bells and green leaves, [2]
longing for dreams of early summer.
In one corner of that country,
she says, if it’s just five more years, I will try to wait
I will draw out my life and wait
as if I were pulling a birchwood bow. [3]
That is what she said, my mother,
her letter has arrived.

[1] Hamadera is one of the oldest public parks in the city of Osaka. Established in 1873, the park is known for its pine trees.

[2] The cuckoo (hototogisu) and green leaves (aoba) are both seasonal terms (kigo) strongly associated with summer.

[3] The phrase “birchwood bow” (azusa no yumi), sometimes translated as “catalpa bow,” refers to bows made of Japanese cherry birch. In classical Japanese poetry, the phrase azusayumi is used as a makurakotoba (lit. ‘pillow word’), or intensifying epithet, for the verb hiku (to pull or to draw).