Round One Hundred and Forty-Nine

Left

もろともにこけのしたにはくちずしてうづもれぬ名を聞くぞかなしき

morotomo ni koke no shita ni wa kuchizushite uzumorenu na o kiku zo kanashiki

With her Beneath the moss It perishes not— Of high renown, her name: To see it is a bitter grief.

297[1]

Right

霜をまつまがきの菊のよひの間におきまよふ色は山のはの月

shimo o matsu magaki no kiku no yoi no ma ni okimayou iro wa yama no ha no tsuki

Awaiting the frost By my lattice fence, the chrysanthemums In the midst of night Are draped in puzzling hues By the moon from off the mountains’ edge.

298[2]

---

[1] Kin’yōshū X: 612 (3): After the Koshikibu Handmaid had died, Izumi Shikibu had several robes which Empress Akiko had given her daughter over the years as keepsakes; when she saw notes she had made with Koshikibu, she composed.

[2] Shinkokinshū V: 507: On the conception of chrysanthemums under the moon by a lattice fence, when she presented a hundred poem sequence.