Old Folk 老人
あさなあさなみれどむかしのかげならで日にそへおいのますかがみかな
| asana asana miredo mukashi no kage narade hi ni soe oi no masukagami kana | Each morn I look, yet yesterday’s Face fails to appear, and With each passing day, old age Is clear within my mirror! |
Tadafusa
Tag Archives: mirror
Eikyū hyakushu 634
見えばやなみえば思ひいづるかがみに身をもかへてけるかな
| mieba ya na mieba saritomo omoi’izuru kagami ni mi o mo kaetekeru kana | If I had but been seen… But even had I been seen, I remember The mirror where my reflection Changed! |
Toshiyori
Eikyū hyakushu 545
Ponds 池
吹く風にみくさかたよる池水はなかばくもれるかがみなりけり
| fuku kaze ni mikusa katayoru ikemizu wa nakaba kumoreru kagami narikeri | With the gusting wind The waterweeds trail through The pondwater, turning What lies within into a clouded Mirror. |
Kanemasa
Eikyū hyakushu 398
Mandarin Ducks 鴛鴦
みさびゐぬかがみの池にすむをしはみづからかげをならべてぞみる
| misabi inu kagami no ike ni sumu oshi wa mizukara kage o narabete zo miru | A rust-red stained Mirror is the pond where Dwells a mandarin: His own water-borne reflection Does he match and gaze upon… |
Higo
KKS I: 44
Composed on plum blossom blooming by the water’s edge.
年をへて花のかがみとなる水は散りかかるをや曇るといふ覧
| tosi wo Fete Fana no kagami to naru midu Fa tirikakaru wo ya kumoru to iFuran | As the year draws on The blossom mirroring Waters With scattered petals Will be clouded, one might say? |
Ise
Love VIII: 17
Left
山鳥のはつおの鏡掛けねども見し面影に音は泣かれけり
| yamadori no hatsuo no kagami kakenedomo mishi omokage ni ne wa nakarekeri |
A mountain pheasant’s Tail of hempen cord this mirror Does not suspend, yet The face I saw there once Makes me weep out loud… |
Kenshō
1053
Right (Win)
面影をほの三嶋野に尋ぬれば行衛知られぬ鵙の草ぐき
| omokage o hono mishimano ni tazunureba yukue shirarenu mozu no kusaguki |
Her face I did but briefly see at Mishimano When I visited there; I know not where has gone The shrike hiding in the grasses. |
Lord Takanobu
1054
The Gentlemen of the Right state: the Left’s poem has no faults to mention. The Gentlemen of the Left state: we wonder about the appropriateness of combining ‘Mishima Plain’ (mishimano) with ‘the shrike hiding in the grasses (mozu no kusaguki). Is there a poem as a precedent for this? If not, is it suitable?
In judgement: both poems have the conception of love: of imagining the pheasant and his mirror, and weeping at the memory of a lover’s face; and thinking of the shrike hiding in the grasses, visiting Mishima Plain, and recalling the past. However, what should we do about the matter of whether there is a precedent poem for ‘the shrike hiding in the grasses’ on Mishima Plain? Surely, it could be any plain, so there is no reason not to use this. The configuration of ‘I know not where has gone’ (yukue shirarenu) sounds better than that of ‘makes me weep out loud’ (ne wa nakarekeri). The Right, again, must win, I think.
MYS XIV: 3468
山鳥の峰ろのはつをに鏡懸け唱ふべみこそ汝に寄そりけめ
| yamatori no woro no hatsuwo ni kagami kake tonapubemi koso na ni kosorikeme |
A mountain pheasant’s Tail of hempen cord Hangs this mirror; That you foresaw its song Does make me love you more. |
Anonymous
Sanboku kikashū VII: 1113
山鳥のはつをの鏡影ふれて影をだに見ぬ人ぞ恋しき
| yamadori no hatsuo no kagami kage furete kage o dani minu hito zo koishiki |
A pheasant, With a mirror on hempen cord Will touch his form; But without even a glimpse Dearly do I love you! |
Minamoto no Shunrai
源俊頼
GSIS VII: 456
When he had first gone to the residence of the former Regent and Rokujō Minister, and people were composing on the conception of long clear pond waters.
今年だに鏡と見ゆる池水の千世経てすまむ影ぞゆかしき
| kotosi dani kagami to miyuru ikemidu no tiyo Fete sumamu kage zo yukasiki |
Especially this year A mirror it does seem: This pond water – Clear through the passage of a thousand ages, How I long for its light! |
Fujiwara no Norinaga
藤原範永
Murasaki shikibu shū 18
逢ひ見むと思ふ心は松浦なる鏡の神や空に見るらむ
| aFimimu to omoFu kokoro Fa matura naru kagami no kami ya sora ni miruramu |
“I will meet her,” In his heart he feels: In Matsura Does the deity of the mirror See that in the skies, I wonder… |
Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部