Japanese Hokku 11
If you had not sung Then what would I imitate, Happy nightingale?
Lewis Alexander
If you had not sung Then what would I imitate, Happy nightingale?
A speaker turns to a nightingale and asks a gentle, almost teasing question: if the bird had never sung, what would there be to imitate? The nightingale is not just a pleasant sound here—it is the original melody that human song or poetry tries to echo.
Les hele sammendraget