Round Eight
Fresh Bracken
Left
さわらびのもえいづる春の夕ぐれは霞のうへに煙立ちけり
| sawarabi no moe’izuru haru no yūgure wa kasumi no ue ni keburi tachikeri | Fresh bracken Budding on a spring Evening: Above the haze, Smoke a’rising. |
Koshikibu
15
Right
いつしかともえにけるかなさわらびの野辺はいかなるおもひなるらん
| itsu shika to moenikeru kana sawarabi no nobe wa ikanaru omoi naruran | So swiftly Has it budded! Fresh bracken In the meadows—what sort of Feelings might it bring? |
Shikibu
16
Round Five
Fresh bracken
Left
かりびとのとやまをこめてやきしよりしたもえいづるのべのさわらび
| karibito no toyama o komete yakishi yori shita moe’izuru nobe no sawarabi | Since hunters All the nearby mountains Have burned Budding beneath is Fresh bracken in the meadows. |
Sagami
9
Right (Win)
花をだにをりてかへらんさわらびはをぎのやけのにいまぞおひいづる
| hana o dani orite kaeran sawarabi wa ogi no yakeno ni ima zo oi’izuru | At least some blossom Let us pick and then return! Fresh bracken On the burned plain of cogon grass Is now a’sprouting! |
Jijū no menoto
10
‘Fresh bracken’ is something which folk of old referred to in various ways, and the latter poem is in keeping with this. ‘At least some blossom / Let us pick and then return!’ is an extremely charming mental image, if one had simply seen it budding, one would wonder why the poet has not sought out some other location before returning home. Moving on to ‘Since hunters / All the nearby mountains’, this is an overly hackneyed, and thus distasteful, expression like ‘on eastern roads’, so the latter poem is superior, isn’t it.
On topics from the Six Volumes: Bracken.
うちかへす片山畑のさわらびのしたにもゆるもあらはれにけり
| uchikaesu katayamahata no sawarabi no shita ni moyuru mo arawarenikeri | Tilling The fields on the mountainside, Fresh bracken’s Secret shoots, smouldering, Have been revealed! |
The Kinugasa Minister of the Centre
[Kinugasa no Ieyoshi 衣笠家良 (1192-1264)]