Carpe Diem #226, Hototogisu (Little or English Cuckoo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we have a wonderful kigo to work with. Today it's Hototogisu (Little or English Cuckoo) and it is (and was) a wonderful kigo to all haiku poets, modern as well as classic. It's a very populair kigo and I have found several wonderful haiku written on Hototogisu. E.g. this one by Basho:

hototogisu otake yabu wo more tsukiyo

moonlight slants through
the vast bamboo grove
a hototogisu cries

R.H.Blyth comments, in his four Volume series Haiku Vol.3, on this verse saying:

It is said that even now there are great bamboo groves around the place where once Kyorai's villa stood at Saga. Basho spent two weeks here in April, in the fourth year of Genroku (1692). The Hototogisu corresponds more or less to the Little or English cuckoo. The breast of the male is blackish, with white blotches. The breast of the female is white, the inside of the mouth red; it has a crest of hair on the head. The legs are greenish. It doesn't make a nest of its own, but borrows that of the uguisu (The Japanese Bush Warbler (Uguisu), Cettia diphone, is a passerine bird more often heard than seen. Its distinctive breeding call can be heard throughout much of Japan from the start of spring. Some other Japanese names given to the bird are haru-dori ("spring bird"), haru-tsuge-dori ("spring-announcing bird") and hanami-dori ("spring-flower-viewing bird"). Its place in Japanese poetry has also given it the names uta-yomi-dori ("poem-reading bird") and kyo-yomi-dori ("sutra-reading bird"), the latter because its call is traditionally transcribed in Japanese as "Hō-hoke-kyo", the abbreviated Japanese title of the lotus sutra).

Credits: Uguisu

From early summer, it (the hototogisu), sings day and night, and ceases in autumn. It is said to vomit blood and die after it has sung eight thousand and eight times.

Or what do you think of this one by Shiki:

tsuki no de no kusa ni kaze fuku hototogisu

the moon arising
there is wind in the grass
a hototogisu sings

Blyth says about this verse: Over the mountains the moon appears; a gust of wind moves the summer grasses, the sound already a little dry and melancholy. In the distance, a hototogisu suddenly breaks into song. The combination of sight and touch and sound is perfect, is complete, nothing more is required. In the succeeding stillness, the moon climbs higher and higher tinto the sky.

I have found a beautiful haiga by Buson in which he portrays a Hototogisu.

A little cuckoo across a hydrangea - Yosa Buson

The haiku in this haiga is:

Iwakura no kyoojo koi seyo hototogisu

cause the madwoman at Iwakura
to fall more deeply in love
o hototogisu

And I love to share another photo of the Hototogisu.

Credits: Hototogisu

Enough about this wonderful and populair bird as classical kigo for mid-summer. Let me try to write a haiku about the Hototogisu.

little cuckoo
sings the whole day and night
his bleeding throat

his bleeding throat
sign for upcoming dead
just one song left

just one song left
thousands times he gave his concert -
fallen to earth

fallen to earth
completing the cycle of life 

little cuckoo

I hope you did like this episode, unless the sad ending of it. Be inspired and share your haiku with us all here on Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'til June 21th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, Yuunagi (Evening lull), later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). !! The linking widget of Hototogisu will open at 9.00 PM (CET) !!