Round One Hundred and Two

Left

名をきけば昔ながらの山なれどしぐるる秋はいろまさりけり

na o kikeba mukashi nagara no yama naredo shigururu aki wa iro masarikeri

When I hear its name, Long ago as now This mountain is, yet In the autumn drizzle Are its colours supreme!

203[1]

Right

そむかずはいづれの世にかめぐりあひて思ひけりとも人にしられん

somukazu wa izure no yo ni ka meguriaite omoikeri to mo hito ni shiraren

Orders had I taken not, then In some world to come Would I encounter them and Care at all?—that I would have them know.

204[2]

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[1] Shūishū III: 198: Composed for a folding screen in the residence of Nishinomiya Minister of the Left [Minamoto no Taka’akira (914-983)], to accompany an image of a group of women in travelling clothes among the autumn leaves on the path across the Shiga Mountains.

[2] Shinkokinshū XX: 1957: Abandoning obligation and taking the path of transcendence.