Heat Haze
しづけくて吹きくる風もなき空にみだれてあそぶいとぞみえける
shizukekute fukikuru kaze mo naki sora ni midarete asobu ito zo miekeru | Even a gently Blowing breeze Is absent from the skies, where A playful tangled Thread of haze appears. |
Tadafusa
Heat Haze
しづけくて吹きくる風もなき空にみだれてあそぶいとぞみえける
shizukekute fukikuru kaze mo naki sora ni midarete asobu ito zo miekeru | Even a gently Blowing breeze Is absent from the skies, where A playful tangled Thread of haze appears. |
Tadafusa
Heat Haze
ささがにのくもらぬ空のいとなればあそぶ気色のたえずもあるかな
sasagani no kumoranu sora no ito nareba asobu keshiki no taezu mo aru kana | If, a tiny crab, The spider, across the cloudless skies Her web did spin, Endlessly playful The scene would be! |
Toshiyori
Composed when it was said that a poetry competition was to be held at the residence of the Ninna Middle Captain Lady of the Bedchamber.
花のちることやわびしき春霞たつたの山のうぐひすのこゑ
Fana no tiru koto ya wabisiki Farugasumi tatuta no yama no uguFisu no kowe |
The falling of the flowers Is sad, indeed; In the spring haze On Tatsuta Mountain A warbler cries… |
Fujiwara no Chikage
藤原後蔭
1
Composed when it was said that a poetry competition was to be held at the residence of the Ninna Middle Captain Lady of the Bedchamber.
惜しと思ふ心は糸に縒られなむ散る花ごとに貫きてとどめむ
osi to omoFu kokoro Fa ito ni yorarenamu tiru Fana goto ni nukite todomemu |
A regretful Heart with threads Does seem to be entangled; Every single scattered bloom Will I thread on them to keep. |
Sosei
素性
2
細く降る弥生の雨やいとならむ水にあやおる広沢の池
hosuku furu yayoi no ame ya ito naramu mizu ni aya oru hirosawa no ike |
Thinly falls, The Third Month rain: Does it thread become To weave a crest upon The pond at Hirosawa? |
Kodaishin, from the Residence of the Hanazono Minister of the Left
花園左大臣家小大進
When there had been a gale, and someone had called to see how she was, in the silence later, she wrote this and sent it.
荒かりし風の後より絶えするは蜘蛛手にすがく糸にやあるらん
arakarisi kaze no noti yori taesuru Fa kumode ni sugaku ito ni ya aruran |
Wildly The wind has gone, and Broken are The spider’s spanning Webs – is that how we are to be? |
Sagami
相模
七夕を祀る心はひとつにて願ひの糸は自が筋筋
tanabata o matsuru kokoro wa hitotsu nite negai no ito wa ono ga sujisuji |
At Tanabata, Worshipful hearts Are all as one; The threads of prayers Are all our own, each and every one! |
Minamoto no Yorimasa
At the waterfall at Ryūmon.
くる人もなき奥山の滝の糸は水のわくにぞまかせたりける
kuru Fito mo naki okuyama no taki no ito Fa midu no waku ni zo makasetarikeru |
No one is there To reel, deep within the mountains Threads from off the falls, so To the spraying waters Have I left it! |
Middle Councillor Sadayori
中納言定頼
Left (Tie).
隔てける籬の島のわりなきに住む甲斐なしや千賀の塩釜
hedatekeru magaki no shima no warinasa ni sumu kai nashi ya chika no shiogama |
Barring our way is The fence – Magaki Isle: So unreasonable That living close is pointless, as if We were at Chika’s salt-kilns! |
Kenshō
885
Right.
忍ぶ草竝ぶ軒端の夕暮に思ひをかはすさゝがにの糸
shinobugusa narabu nokiba no yūgure ni omoi o kawasu sasagani no ito |
A weeping fern lies Between our almost touching eaves; In the evening Love will pass Along the spider’s thread. |
Ietaka
886
The Right state: the Left’s ‘Magaki Isle’ (magaki no shima) and ‘Chika’s salt kiln’s’ (chika no shiogama) do not seem that nearby, do they? They only evoke closeness through wordplay. The Right state: we find no faults to indicated in the Left’s poem.
In judgement: the Left’s ‘Magaki Isle’ and ‘Chika’s salt kilns’, even if they are not that close, do not display a lack of technique in the conception of the current composition. I do wonder what to think about ‘so unreasonable’ (warinasa ni), though. The Right’s weeping ferns, with the spider’s behaviour transmitting the feelings of love, does not seem unreasonable either. This round, too, the poems are comparable and should tie.
On thread.
河内女の手染めの糸を繰り返し片糸にあれど絶えむと思へや
kapatime no tezome no ito wo kurikapesi kataito ni aredo taemu to omope ya |
My Kawachi maiden’s Hand-dyed thread I wind again, and yet again; Though it be but a single strand, Never will it part, I trust. |
Anonymous