When a man who had come to see her around the Eighth Month left behind his fan, which was decorated with a picture of bamboo leaves spotted with dewdrops, after some time had passed, she returned it, with this.
しののめにおきてわかれし人よりはひさしくとまる竹の葉の露
| shinonome ni okite wakareshi hito yori wa hisashiku tomaru take no ha no tsuyu | At the break of dawn He rose and left— That man, but Much longer lingered Dewdrops on the bamboo leaves. |
Izumi Shikibu
A spring poem, from when he composed a fifty-poem sequence at the residence of Cloistered Prince Shukaku.
山のはもそらもひとつに見ゆるかなこれやかすめるはるのあけぼの
| yama no ha mo sora mo hitotsu ni miyuru kana kore ya kasumeru haru no akebono | The mountains’ edge and The sky, too, as one Do seem! This is the hazy Dawn in springtime! |
Minamoto no Moromitsu
源師光
Round 8
Left
花の色はかすみのひまにほのみえて山のはにほふ春の暁
| hana no iro wa kasumi no hima ni honomiete yama no ha niou haru no akebono | The blossoms’ hues Between the shifting haze I briefly glimpse, and The mountains’ edges glow With the dawn in springtime. |
325
Right
あだし夜の花にとききてゆく雁の名残もいとど有明のそら
| adashiyo no hana ni toki kite yuku kari no nagori mo itdodo ariake no sora | To fleeting night’s Blossoms has the time come, and The departing geese leave A keepsake more brief In the skies at dawn. |
326
This round, again, it seems difficult to distinguish between the the two poems.
Former Emperor Gosukō (1372-1456)
後崇光院
Left
おしなべて五月のそらを見渡せば草葉も水もみどりなりけり
| oshinabete satsuki no sora o miwataseba kusaba mo mizu mo midori narikeri | When the entire Fifth Month sky I gaze across, Blades of grass and water, too, Are green. |
72[1]
Right
くるるかとみれば明けぬる夏の夜をあかずとや鳴く山郭公
| kururu ka to mireba akenuru natsu no yo o akazu to ya naku yamahototogisu | Did you think ’twas sunset? When a glance would show the breaking dawn Of this summer night- Unsated by your song, do you sing on, Cuckoo in the mountains? |
73[2]
[1] Shinchokusenshū III: 152/Kokin rokujō I: 89
[1] Kokinshū III: 157, attributed to Mibu no Tadamine/Shinsen man’yōshū 57/Kokin rokujō VI: 4437
