First Snow 初雪
めづらしき花のみやこの初雪を九重にさへふらしてぞみる
| mezurashiki hana no miyako no hatsuyuki o kokonoe ni sae furashite zo miru | Unusually, On the flower that is the Capital Has fallen the first snow – The ninefold palace gates Have summoned it, it seems! |
Toshiyori
On blossom.
見まく欲り恋ひつつ待ちし秋萩は花のみ咲きてならずかもあらむ
| mimakupori koitutu matisi aki pagi pa pana nomi sakite narazu kamo aramu |
Longing to see, and Yearning have I awaited The autumn bush clover: In flower only does it bloom – Will no more come of it that that… |
Anonymous
Left.
いつしかと移ろふ色の見ゆるかな花心なる八重の白菊
| itsu shika to utsurou iro no miyuru kana hanagokoronaru yae no shiragiku |
All at once Your colours change I see; What a flower’s heart you have, Eightfold chrysanthemum! |
495
Right (Win).
花ならぬ匂ひも後はなき物を移ろひ殘れ庭の白菊
| hana naranu nioi mo nochi wa naki mono wo utsuroinokore niwa no shiragiku |
Flowers are there none, But a trace of scent Of what’s gone Leave trailed behind, O, garden chrysanthemums! |
496
The Right remark that the Left’s poem, ‘seems overly humorous’ [tawabure ni nitari]. The Left counter by wondering, ‘Whether it really is possible to separate flower and scent?’
Shunzei’s judgement: The Left’s poem, even though it has a ‘flower’s heart’ (hanagokoro) ‘changing’ (utsurou), seems to lack the conception of a poem on ‘lingering chrysanthumums’ [zangiku no kokoro sukunaku kikoyuru ni ya]. As for the Right’s poem, although it is true that flower and scent are not separate, there are poems composed on plum blossom, such as ‘The plum blossoms’/Scent, disturbingly,/Clings to my sleeves’ or ‘Leave behind your scent, at least’, so ‘a trace of scent’ (nioi mo nochi wa) does not seem to be a fault. ‘Leave trailed behind’ (utsuroinokore), too, is not unpleasant [yoroshikarazaru ni arazu]. The Right should win.
After speaking with a women, the following day I sent this attached to a pink, and what do you think happened?
とこなつの花の露にはむつれねどぬるともなくて濡れし袖かな
| tokonatu no Fana no tuyu ni Fa muturenedo nurutomonakute nuresi sode kana |
Well-bedded, the pink Flower’s dewfall: Intimate with it I’m not, yet Unsuspecting, How drenched have my sleeves become! |
Again, to a lady on some occasion or other.
むらさきの色にいでける花をみて人は忍ぶと露ぞつげゝる
| murasaki no iro ni idekeru Fana wo mite Fito Fa sinobu to tuyu zo tugekeru |
In violet Hues emerging is A flower glimpsed; What a man would conceal is Revealed in dewdrops. |