Category Archives: Personal Collections

Ise-shū 348

From the Master of the Right Capital Office, when the pinks were blooming in profusion.

我がそでにうつらばうつれてもやまずつみやいれましなでしこのはな

wa ga sode ni
utsuraba utsure
te mo yamazu
tsumi ya iremashi
nadeshiko no hana
If, to my sleeves
It is to shift, then let it!
My hand will not cease
To pick and I would tuck within
A flowering pink!

Minamoto no Muneyuki

Ikuhōmon’in no Aki-shū 54

Around the last day of the Fifth Month, when she had been lying awake all night, filled with gloomy thoughts.

限りあればこよひにつきぬさみだれも身をしるあめはいつかをやまん

kagiri areba
koyoi ni tsukinu
samidare mo
mi o shiru ame wa
itsuka o yaman
All things have an end, so
This night’s endless
Showers—
The rainfall of my misery—
O, when might they cease to fall?

Lady Aki, in service to the Empress Ikuhōmon’in
郁芳門院安芸

Ise-shū 465

Attached to some lilac daphne.

花のいろのこきをみすとてこきたるをおろかに人はおもふらんやぞ

Fana no iro no
koki o misu tote
kokitaru o
oroka ni Fito Fa
omoFuran ya zo
‘The blossom’s hues’
Depth show me!’ you say, and
Deeply—but
O, how foolish, would it be
For me to care for you?

Tsurayuki-shū 358

Poems composed for a folding screen for the Minister of the Right in Jōhei 7 [937]: Women gazing at the scarlet plum blossom they had picked beneath the trees.

雪とのみあやまたれつつ梅花くれなゐにさへかよひけるかな

yuki to nomi
aya mataretsutsu
mume no hana
kurenai ni sae
kayoikeru kana
For the snow alone,
O, have we ever waited, while
The plum blossom
Simply in scarlet
Has scattered back and forth.