A poem from the Poetry Contest held by the Empress Dowager during the reign of the Kanpyō emperor.

秋風にほころびぬらし藤袴つづりさせてふきりぎりすなく

akikaze ni Fokorobinurasi Fudibakama tudurisasete teFu kirigirisu naku

With the autumn breeze Seem to have bloomed and twined The asters Bound together by the rasping Crickets’ cries.[1]

Ariwara no Muneyana

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[1] This poem is composed around a dual wordplay, which I have not been able to closely replicate in the translation. Hokorobu is simultaneously both ‘bloom fully’ and ‘thread (a needle)’ while tsuzuru is both ‘sew together’ and an onomatopoeic representation of the sound that a cricket makes.