Love.
Left
人知れぬ恋の涙はうぐひすの初声にこそながれいでぬれ
hito shirenu koi no namida wa uguisu no hatsukoe ni koso nagare’idenure Unknown to all My tears of love With the warbler’s First cry have Burst into flow!
3
Right
いかならむときか忘れむ春霞たちゐる空も君ぞこひしき
ika naramu toki ka wasuremu harugasumi tachi’iru sora mo kimi zo koishiki What is to become of me? Can I forget the time, when The spring haze Rising into the skies, too, Was dear to me as you?
4
A cuckoo at a mountain dwelling.
山ちかく家ゐしせれば郭公なくはつこゑをわれのみぞきく
yama chikaku ie ishisereba hototogisu naku hatsukoe o ware nomi zo kiku Near unto the mountains Have I set my home, so The cuckoo’s First sung call Is for me, alone, to hear!
はつこゑを聞くとはなしに今日も又山ほととぎすまたずしもあらず
hatsukoe o kiku to wa nashi ni kyō mo mata yama hototogisu matazu shimo arazu That first call I’ve not heard, while Today, once more, The mountain cuckoo It’s not that I am not awaiting…
やま里に家ゐはすべし鶯のなくはつこゑのきかまほしさに
yamazato ni iei wa subeshi uguisu no naku hatsukoe no kikamahoshisa ni Into a mountain retreat Shall I make my home, for The warbler’s First sung song Is what I long to hear…
3
Created with Soan .
Summer
Five poems on the Fourth Month
Left (Win)
みやまいでてまづはつこゑはほととぎすよぶかくまたむわがやどになけ
miyama idete mazu hatsukoe wa hototogisu yobu kaku matamu wa ga yado ni nake Emerging from the mountains deep, Early, your first call, Cuckoo— Where I would be waiting all night long At my house, o, sing out!
Masakata[i]
41
Right
けふよりはなつのころもになりぬれどきるひとさへはかはらざりけり
kyō yori wa natsu no koromo ni narinuredo kiru hito sae wa kawarazarikeri From today Summer garb We have put on, yet The folk who wear it Have not changed at all.
Mitsune 42
‘The Right is uninteresting,’ so it lost.
[i] Minamoto no Masakata 源雅固 (dates unknown). A son of Minamoto no Sada’ari 源定有 (dates unknown), one of the sons of Emperor Montoku (827-858; r. 850-858).
みやまいでてまづはつこゑはほととぎすよぶかくまたむわがやどになけ
miyama idete mazu hatsukoe wa hototogisu yobu kaku matamu wa ga yado ni nake Emerging from the mountains’ depths, To begin, you give your first cry, O, cuckoo! Thus I would wait and call you To sing at my own dwelling!
Masakata 雅固
'Simply moving and elegant'