Round Twenty-Three
Left
月やあらぬ春やむかしの春ならぬわが身ひとつはもとの身にして
| tsuki ya aranu haru ya mukashi no haru naranu wa ga mi hitotsu wa moto no mi ni shite | Is this not that moon? And Spring: is as the Spring of old Is it not? Only this body of mine Is as it ever was… |
45[i]
Right
もらすなよ雲ゐるみねのはつしぐれ木葉は下にいろかはるとも
| morasu na yo kumo’iru mine no hatsushigure ko no ha wa shita ni iro kawaru tomo | O, don’t drip down, Peak-clinging clouds First shower! For under you the trees’ leaves Will yet change their hues…[ii] |
46[iii]
[i] KKS XV: 747: Narihira had been seeing a woman living in the western wing of the palace of the Gojō Empress, and loved her dearly. Shortly after the Tenth day of the First Month, she disappeared off to somewhere else and, though he found out where she was, he could not communicate with her. When Spring came and the plum blossom was in full bloom, on a night when the moon was especially beautiful, he was yearning for the love of the previous year and went back to the western wing and, until the moon was low in the sky, lay upon the bare boards; then he composed.
[ii] An allusive variation on KKS V: 260.
[iii] SKKS XII: 1087: On the conception of hidden love, when he held a poetry match in one hundred rounds at his house, while he was Major Captain of the Left.
