KKS V: 255

In the Jōkan period, there was a plum tree in front of the Ryōki Hall in the north-east of the Palace compound. Once, when the leaves on the branches thrust out on its western side had begun to turn, His Majesty’s waiting-gentlemen composed poetry upon it:

おなじ枝を分きて木の葉のうつろふは西こそ秋のはじめなりけれ

onazi e wo
wakite ko no Fa no
uturoFu Fa
nisi koso aki no
Fazime narikere
On the selfsame branch
Are the leaves divided in
Their turning:
It is in the west, indeed, that Autumn
Does begin, I see.

Fujiwara no Kachion

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