The Kawara Estate 河原院 was the magnificent former residence of Minamoto no Tōru 源融 (822-895). It was particularly renowned for its gardens, which were shaped to resemble Shiogama Bay 塩釜浦 in Michinoku – a famous utamakura location.
All posts by Thomas
SIS III: 140
When people were composing poems on ‘one’s feelings on arriving at a run-down house in autumn’ at the Kawara estate.
八重葎茂れる宿のさびしきに人こそ見えぬ秋は來にけり
| yaFe mugura sigereru yado no sabisiki ni Fito koso mienu aki Fa kinikeri |
Overlaying creepers Grow thickly on this house, So desolate, Folk nowhere to be seen With the coming of autumn. |
SIS II: 98
SIS II: 85
From a folding screen in the palace of His Majesty, former Emperor En’yū (959-991; r. 969-984).
紫のふぢさく松のこずゑにはもとのみどりもみえずぞありける
| murasaki no Fudi saku matu no kozuwe ni Fa moto no midori mo miezu zo arikeru | The violet Wisteria blooms upon the pine’s Treetops: The green beneath Has quite vanished. |
SIS II: 79
SIS I: 28
SIS I: 15
For a picture of a guest arriving at a house with plum blossom, on a folding screen in the Reizei Palace.
我が宿の梅の立ち枝や見えつらん思ひの外に君が來ませる
| wa ga yado no ume no tatie ya mieturan omoFi no Foka ni kimi ga kimaseru |
My home’s Trailing branch of plum: Was it that you saw, I wonder? For unexpectedly You have arrived. |
SIS I: 5
From a folding screen with a picture of the moon, in the Engi period (901-23).
あらたまの年立歸朝より待たるゝ物は鶯の聲
| aratama no tosi tatikaFeru asita yori mataruru mono Fa uguFisu no kowe |
Once again anew The year is come upon us; And by the ’morrow We will have waited long To hear the warbler’s song. |
The Monk Sosei
素性法師
GSS XV: 1102
At the time when the Grand Minister (Fujiwara no Tadahira) was Major Captain of the Left, on the day he was host to the winners of the Sumai Festival, the Middle Captain (Kanesuke) went and when all was done and everyone was heading home in the morning, two or three of the best remained, host and guests, and after drinking a great deal more, he mounted his horse, drunk, and when he was talking of his children, said:
人の親の心は闇にあらねども子を思ふ道にまどひぬるかな
| Fito no oya no kokoro Fa yami ni aranedomo ko wo omoFu miti ni madoFinuru kana |
A parent’s Heart in darkness May not be, yet Fondly thinking on his child, his way Has he lost, indeed… |
Fujiwara no Kanesuke
GSS IV: 188
Topic unknown.
夏の夜に戀しき人の香をとめば花橘ぞしるべなりける
| natu no yo ni koFisiki Fito no ka wo tomeba Fana tatibana zo sirube narikeru |
On a summer night My dear one’s Scent I seek: Orange blossoms For my guide. |
Anonymous