When Tsutsugimi was born, on the Seventh Night Middle Captain Michitsuna heard of it and started by saying to me:
知らずして七日ゆくまでなりにける數まさるなる濱のまさごを
sirazusite
nanuka yuku made
narinikeru
kazu masarunaru
Fama no masago wo |
All unknowing
Upon the Seventh Night
Are we arrived;
An age as great as
Grains of sand upon the beach… |
In reply (by Middle Captain Michitsuna, or Michinobu)
ほとゝぎすなくべき枝と見ゆれどもまたるゝものはうぐひすの聲
Fototogisu
nakubeki eda to
miyuredomo
mataruru mono Fa
uguFisu no kowe |
Cuckoos
From this branch should call
Or so it seems, yet
What we await is
A warbler’s cry. |
His reply:
波の寄る宇治ならずとも西川のあみだにあらば魚もすくはん
nami no yoru
uzi narazu tomo
nisi kaFa no
amida ni araba
iwo mo sukuFan |
Though the wave-wracked
Uji it is not,
The Western River:
Were Amida but there
Would the fish be taken up! |
'Simply moving and elegant'