Geese before the moon
九重の雲ゐをわけて久かたの月の宮こに雁ぞ鳴くなる
| kokonoe no kumoi o wakete hisakata no tsuki no miyako ni kari zo nakunaru | Ninefold, The clouds are parted, and Around the eternal Lunar capital Goose cries sound. |
Tag Archives: eternal
Kinkai wakashū 222
Dew upon the plains.
久かたの空とぶかりのなみだかもおほあらきののささのうへのつゆ
| hisakata no ama tobu kari no namida kamo ōarakino no sasa no ue no tsuyu | Eternal Heaven-flying goose Tears, perhaps? Upon Ōaraki Plain, Dew upon the dwarf-bamboo…[1] |
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. なきわたるかりの涙やおちつらむ物思ふやどの萩のうへのつゆ nakiwataru / kari no namida ya / ochitsuran / mono’omou yado no / hagi no ue no tsuyu ‘Calling across / Did the geese let tears / Fall? / My dwelling, lost in thought, / Has dew upon the bush clover.’ Anonymous (KKS IV:221); and: 如是為而也 尚哉将老 三雪零 大荒木野之 小竹尓不有九二 kakushite ya / nao ya oinuramu / miyuki furu / ōarakino no / shino ni aranaku ni ‘Is this how it is to be? / Have I yet grown old / Though covered with fair snow / On Ōaraki Plain / An arrow-bamboo I am not…’ Anonymous (MYS VII: 1349).
Kinkai wakashū 201
Kinkai wakashū 200
Kinkai wakashū 194
Kinkai wakashū 193
Kinkai wakashū 98
Kinkai wakashū 1
Spring
Composed on the First day of the First Month
今朝みれば山もかすみて久かたのあまのはらより春は来にけり
| kesa mireba yama mo kasumite hisakata no ama no hara yori haru wa kinikeri | Gazing out this morning The mountains are all hazed From the eternal Plains of Heaven[i] Spring has come, at last! |
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[i] The reference to the ‘plains of Heaven’ (ama no hara 天の原) being ‘eternal’ (hisakata 久方) implies that the poet has been long awaiting the arrival of spring—a nuance which I have attempted to capture with the final ‘at last’.