Left (Tie).
出でゝこし道のさゝ原しげりあひて誰ながむ覧故郷の月
| idetekoshi michi no sasawara shigeriaite tare nagamuran furusato no tsuki |
I have set out Upon the road through bamboo grass, So lush; Who, I wonder, gazes At the moon above my distant home… |
165
Right (Tie).
わくらばにとはれし人も昔にてそれより庭の跡はたえにき
| wakuraba ni towareshi hito mo mukashi nite sore yori niwa no ato wa taeniki |
A rare Visit by him: even that Lies in the past; From my garden all Traces of his tracks have gone. |
166
Left.
おほかたの月もつれなき鐘の音に猶うらめしき有明の空
| ôkata no tsuki mo tsurenaki kane no oto ni nao urameshiki ariake no sora |
In general, The moon, with the heartless, Morning bell’s chime I find ever more hateful as The dawning sky. |
161
Right (Win).
下もゆるなげきの煙空に見よ今も野山の秋の夕暮
| shita moyuru nageki no keburi sora ni miyo ima mo noyama no aki no yûgure |
Burning within, My grief sends smoke into The skies – behold it Now above the mounts and plains This autumn evening! |
162
Topic Unknown.
潮のまによもの浦々尋ぬれどいまはわが身のいふかひもなし
| siFo no ma ni yomo no uraura tadunuredo ima Fa wagami no iFukaFi mo nasi |
Within the tide-space All along the beaches Do I seek, yet No, it does Avail me not. |
Izumi Shikibu
和泉式部
Once, when Retired Emperor Reizei (950-1011; r. 967-969) was Crown Prince, the gentlemen were composing poems on the spirit of waiting for the moon:
有明の月の光を待つほどに我が世のいたくふけにける哉
| ariake no tuki no Fikari wo matu Fodo ni wa ga yo no itaku Fukenikeru kana |
While from the dawning sky The moon’s light I have awaited, For me it has become very Late, indeed! |
Fujiwara no Nakafumi (923-992)
Reizei was Crown Prince from the 23rd day of the Seventh Month 950 until the 25th day of the Fifth Month 967.
In the poem, the “moon’s light” is a reference to the Prince’s patronage, which Nakafumi feels he has grown old awaiting.
Topic unknown.
誰がみそぎ木綿つけ鳥か唐衣たつたの山におりはへてなく
| ta ga misogi yuFutukedori ka karakoromo tatuta no yama ni oriFaFete naku |
For whose lustration is This mulberry cloth? A cockerel Crows upon the Cathay robe Cut out on Tatsuta Mountain, Endlessly calling. |
Anonymous
This poem relies upon an elaborate series of overlapping word plays and images in order to achieve its effect.
First, we have ta ga misogi yuFu tuke ‘For whose lustration ceremony is this mulberry cloth fastened?’. This overlaps with yuFutukedori ka karakoromo ‘A cockerel crows’ (karakoromo sounded to old Japanese ears like a cock’s crow). In turn, this overlaps with karakoromo tatu ‘A Cathay robe cut out’, which overlaps with tatuta no yama ‘Tatsuta Mountain’. Karakoromo was, in fact, a makura kotoba conventionally associated with tatu. A further double meaning is achieved in the final line where oriFaFete ‘endlessly’, is derived from a verb, oriFaFu 織延ふ, meaning ‘weave at great length’.
Additionally, implicit in the poem is the knowledge that a Cathay robe would have been made out of brocade (nisiki 錦), which was an image frequently used in poetry to describe the panoply of scarlet autumn leaves at places such as Tatsuta.
So, the poem presents us with a progression of images: from the simplicity of the sacred mulberry cloth to the richness of the brocade robe; the cockerel used in a religious ceremony, recollecting the lustration, while simultaneously being an embroidered decoration on the Chinese robe, with his crows echoing endlessly through the autumn leaves at Tatsuta, and frozen into an endless crow upon the garment.
A poem on the fleeting nature of things, from a hundred poem sequence presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku.
世中をおもひつらねてながむればむなしきそらにきゆる白雲
| yo no naka o omoi tsuranete nagamureba munashiki sora ni kiyuru shira kumo |
When on the world of men I fix my thoughts- Staring hard, Within the empty skies White clouds vanish. |
Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office Toshinari
藤原俊成
On seeing a poem by someone of old, when he was compiling the Senzaishû.
ゆくすゑはわれをもしのぶ人やあらんむかしをおもふ心ならひに
| yukusue wa ware o mo shinobu hito ya aran mukashi o omou kokoro narai ni |
In years to come Will I be fondly recalled By someone, I wonder? Thinking upon the distant past As is our wont… |
Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office Toshinari
藤原俊成