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 Spventi: ""but perhaps it's safest to discuss your concerns before making arbitrary changes."" - Indeedly. Sorry for my thoughtlessness.I have no intention to suggest a change from ""nakashite"" to ""nakasete,"" but would feel better if ""miseyo"" is changed to ""miseu"" or ""miseyou"" because みせよ cannot be an expression of volition.The version in Spventi referred is modernized in wording, and both of the two sources say it was written by 松浦靜山, I would say みせう is the original. Plus, the explanation 「松浦靜山の『甲子夜話』にみえる川柳。おそらくはよみ人知らず」 sounds much more reliable than 「江戸後期の平戸藩主・松浦静山が詠んだ句」. Then, みせよう should be a more adequate modern Japanese word here than みよう. I suspect that it might be a typo or mistranslation. Now, here is a third source; a text book for junior-high ISBN 4-594-03155-2, in which the one for Hideyoshi is written as 鳴かぬなら鳴かしてみせようほととぎす. Spventi: ""then the onus is on you to provide information that suggests otherwise."" - Indeedly. But I can't find an english word to express hototogisu. That is why I questioned. It is a family of cuckoo, but smaller. And it really sings. A popular bird next to uguisu who tells you the spring has come, while hototogisu being the one for the summer. Here is an illustration. I was not suggesting to change the word, but just asking whether there was a better word to be used here. If not, it can stay as it is.Spventi: ""your concern about the word ""coax"" is entirely misplaced."" and Jim_Lockhart: ""I think coax is fine for saying that"" - Hmmm. I withdraw. I trust you two than my dictionaries. One comment to Jim_Lockhart. Yes, he used flattery when necessary, especially in his early times, and I don't think it gives a negative feeling by describing him that way. That was not my worry. What I wanted to say was that it is only one face of him. You wrote ""resourseful as he was"", agreed.Now that I accepted the word coax and the form without first person, I admit Spventi's saying ""the changes you made to the English versions of the senryu were clearly not improvements."" Sorry again. One last question:  don't you feel like making some mutial reference between this section and Toyotomi_Hideyoshi#Cultural_point_of_interest? "