Tag Archives: Parting

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 16

Left

をしとおもふいのちにかへてあかつきのわかれのみちはいかでやめてむ

oshi to omou
inochi ni kaete
akatsuki no
wakare no michi wa
ikade yametemu
Filled with regret,
This life I would exchange:
On dawn’s
Parting path
How can I stop my steps?

30

Right

あけぬとてあかずしきみをわかるればこころはゆかぬものにざりける

akenu tote
akazu shi kimi o
wakarureba
kokoro wa yukanu
mono ni zarikeru
When at dawn,
Unsatisfied, from you, my love,
I part,
My heart goes nowhere
At all!

31

Teiji’in tenjōbito uta’awase 04

Left (Win)

あひ見てもあはでもなげくたなばたのいつかこころはのどけかるらむ

aimite mo
awade mo nageku
tanabata no
itsuka kokoro wa
nodokekaruramu
Even having met him,
Now she sees him not, grieving is
The Weaver Maid—
When is it that her heart
Might find some peace?

7

Right

あはずしておもひしよりもたなばたはあかずわかれてのちぞわびしき

awazushite
omoishi yori mo
tanabata wa
akazu wakarete
nochi zo wabishiki
She would not meet him
Once she thought, but far more, now,
The Weaver Maid,
Endlessly, after
Parting is filled with lonely sadness.

8

Teiji’in tenjōbito uta’awase 01

Among the courtiers in service to His Majesty, former Emperor Uda, it was possible to pick out those who had some sensitivity and those who did not, so in a certain year, when the kōshin rite came around on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, those gentlemen who were thought to have this sensitivity spent the day composing poems on the topic of ‘feelings after meeting at Tanabata’ which were divided into teams and matched.

Left

としごとにこりずやあるらんたなばたのあひてこひしきわかれのみする

toshigoto ni
korizu ya aruran
tanabata no
aite koishiki
wakare nomi suru
Every single year
Does she never learn, I wonder?
The Weaver Maid
Meets and then with love
Does simply part.

1

Right (Win)

おもひやる心のそらにしらるればたなばたつめのわかれかなしな

omoiyaru
kokoro no sora ni
shirarureba
tanabatatsume no
wakare kanashiki
Yearning fills
The heavens of her heart—
How well she knows it, for
The Weaver Maid’s
Parting is so sad.

2

SKKS IX: 883

When Cloistered Prince Shukaku ordered him to compose a fifty poem sequence.

たれとしもしらぬ別のかなしきはまつらがおきをいづるふな人

tare to shimo
shiranu wakare no
kanashiki wa
matsura ga oki o
izuru funabito
Who that is
I know not, but parting’s
Sadness strikes
On the offing at Matsura where
He departs on his boat…  

Lord Fujiwara no Takanobu

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

KKS VIII: 387

When Minamoto no Sane left her, saying that he was going to take a hot spring cure in Tsukushi, she composed this at Yamazaki, regretting their parting.

いのちだに心にかなふ物ならばなにか別のかなしからまし

inoti wo dani
kokoro ni kanaFu
mono naraba
nani ka wakare no
kanasikaramasi
If life at least
As we wished
Would go
Why, then, should parting
Seem so sad?

Shirome

GSS XIX: 1313

When a woman who had long been in the same house left, on hearing that her parents in the province of Mino were unwell.

今はとて立帰ゆくふるさとの不破の関路に都忘るな

ima Fa tote
taikaFeriyuku
Furusato no
Fuwa no sekidi ni
miyako wasuruna
“Now is the time,” you say
Getting up to leave for
Your home on
The roads past the barrier of Fuwa,
Don’t forget the capital!

Fujiwara no Kiyotada (? – 958)
藤原清正

SKS VI: 184

When Lord Tachibana no Tamenaka left to become Governor of Michinoku, this was presented from pantry of the Grand Empress Dowager, without any mention of who had sent it.

東路のはるけき道を行かへりいつかとくべき下紐の関

adumadi no
Farukeki miti wo
yukikaFeri
ituka tokubeki
sitaFimo no seki
On Eastern paths
So distant
Will you go, and then return
When, indeed, will you undo
The barrier of Shitahimo – my under-belt again?

Anonymous