Summer Poems

This is the first Polish translation of the entire Summer Poems book of Kokin wakashū (A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern, the first emperial anthology of Japanese poetry, compiled in the beginning of 10th century). Summer Poems is the third of twenty books or volumes of the antology and containing only 34 tanka poems, it is one of the shortest. The main motif of the poems in this volume is the cuckoo (Jp. hototogisu), a migratory bird, whose arrival is eagerly awaited; it is always depicted by its singing only, not by its appearance. Other motifs are summer flowers like wisteria or tachibana, the moon or the wind blowing in the endo of summer.