Tag Archives: night

Ikuhōmon’in no Aki-shū 54

Around the last day of the Fifth Month, when she had been lying awake all night, filled with gloomy thoughts.

限りあればこよひにつきぬさみだれも身をしるあめはいつかをやまん

kagiri areba
koyoi ni tsukinu
samidare mo
mi o shiru ame wa
itsuka o yaman
All things have an end, so
This night’s endless
Showers—
The rainfall of my misery—
O, when might they cease to fall?

Lady Aki, in service to the Empress Ikuhōmon’in
郁芳門院安芸

Uda-in uta’awase 12

Regretting the Day of the Rat

Left

むねのひををしもぬかねばみだれおつるなみだのたまにかつぞけちつる

mune no hi o
o shimo nukaneba
midare’otsuru
namida no tama ni
katsu zo kechitsuru
The fire within my breast
Will not thread upon a string, but
My disorderly dripping
Gemstone tears will
Yet extinguish it.

Tsurayuki
23

Right (Win)

くらきよにともすほたるのむねのひををしもとけたるたまかとぞ見る

kuraki yo ni
tomosu hotaru no
mune no hi o
o shimo toketaru
tama ka zo zo miru
On a night so dark,
The kindled fireflies of
The fire within my breast;
Loosened from their string
As scattered gemstones they appear.

Tadamine
24

Teishi-in ominaeshi uta’awase 06

Left

かくをしむあきにしあはばをみなへしうつろふことはわすれやはせぬ

kaku oshimu
aki ni shi awaba
ominaeshi
utsurou koto wa
wasure ya wa senu
If feeling such regret
I should encounter autumn, then
O, maidenflower,
To fade
You should not forget, should you?

11

Right

ながきよにたれたのめけむをみなへしひとまつむしのえだごとになく

nagaki yo ni
tare tanomekemu
ominaeshi
hito matsumushi no
edagoto ni naku
On a long, long night
Who is it has made you believe,
O, maidenflower?
Pining for him while crickets
Cry from your every branch…

12[1]


[1] Shinsen man’yōshū 536; Fubokushō 4231

Sagyokushū II: 325-326

Round 8

Left

花の色はかすみのひまにほのみえて山のはにほふ春の暁

hana no iro wa
kasumi no hima ni
honomiete
yama no ha niou
haru no akebono
The blossoms’ hues
Between the shifting haze
I briefly glimpse, and
The mountains’ edges glow
With the dawn in springtime.

325

Right

あだし夜の花にとききてゆく雁の名残もいとど有明のそら

adashiyo no
hana ni toki kite
yuku kari no
nagori mo itdodo
ariake no sora
To fleeting night’s
Blossoms has the time come, and
The departing geese leave
A keepsake more brief
In the skies at dawn.

326

This round, again, it seems difficult to distinguish between the the two poems.

Former Emperor Gosukō (1372-1456)
後崇光院