Round Fifty-Five

Left

いづくとも春のひかりはわかなくにまだみよしのの山は雪ふる

izuku tomo haru no hikari wa wakanaku ni mada miyoshino no yama wa yuki furu

Everywhere should fall The light of spring Without exception, yet Still in fair Yoshino’s Mountains snow is falling.

Ōshikōchi no Mitsune
109[i]

Right

みよしのは春のけしきにかすめどもむすぼほれたる雪の下草

miyoshino wa haru no keshiki ni kasumedomo musubōretaru yuki no shitakusa

Fair Yoshino is With Spring’s seeming Hazed, yet there is Solid Snow around the undergrowth.

Murasaki Shikibu
110[ii]

---

[i] A minor variant on a poem from Gosenshū (I: 19), differing only by one syllable in the initial line, but whose meaning is otherwise identical: From among twenty poems he presented to a certain Chamberlain, wishing His Majesty to see them, during the same reign when he was serving in the Banqueting Section of the Royal Table Office and grieving that he was falling into obscurity.

[ii] GSIS I: 10: Composed when she was requested for a Spring poem by some courtiers during the reign of Retired Emperor Ichijō.