Category Archives: Gyokuyōshū

GYS VII: 1093

A poem inscribed in cursive script on a lacquerware box from when he was absorbed in compiling the Collection of a Thousand Years.

和歌の浦にちぢのたまもをかきつめて万世までも君がみんため

waka no ura ni
chiji no tamamo o
kakitsumete
yorozuyo made mo
kimi ga min tame
In the Bay of Waka
Countless gemweeds
Have I raked together that
For ten thousand generations
My Lord may gaze upon them!

Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office Toshinari

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

GYS XV: 2180

On wind, from among His Former Majesty’s Miscellaneous poems.

ひびきくる松のうれより吹きおちて草にこゑやむ山の下風

hibikikuru
matsu no ure yori
fuki’ochite
kusa ni koe yamu
yama no shitakaze
Echoes come
From the pine-branch tips, as
Gusting down and
Losing its voice among the grass
Is the wind from off the mountains

His Former Majesty [Fushimi]

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

GYS X: 1461

When a man who had come to see her around the Eighth Month left behind his fan, which was decorated with a picture of bamboo leaves spotted with dewdrops, after some time had passed, she returned it, with this.


しののめにおきてわかれし人よりはひさしくとまる竹の葉の露

shinonome ni
okite wakareshi
hito yori wa
hisashiku tomaru
take no ha no tsuyu
At the break of dawn
He rose and left—
That man, but
Much longer lingered
Dewdrops on the bamboo leaves.

Izumi Shikibu

GYS XVI: 2230

Sent when the Hōjōji Lay Priest and Former Regent was in seclusion at the Kiyomizu Temple.

滝のおともいかがきくらん都だにものあはれなる比にも有るかな

taki no oto mo
ikaga kikuran
miyako dani
mono’aware naru
koro ni mo aru kana
The waterfall’s sound:
Do you hear it, I wonder?
Even in the capital
My heart is moved
At this time, too!

Former Emperor Kazan
花山院御製

GYS I: 101

Rain on a spring evening.

つれづれと雨ふりくらす春の日はつねよりながき物にぞ有りける

tsurezure to
ame furikurasu
haru no hi wa
tsune yori nagaki
mono ni zo arikeru
Idly
The rain falls, darkening
The springtime sun—
How much longer than normal
It does seem to last…

Shōgimon’in[1]


[1] Shōgimon’in 章義門院  (?-1336) was the title given to Imperial Princess Yoshiko 誉子, the second daughter of Emperor Fushimi.