Tag Archives: pillow

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 19

Round Nineteen

Left (Win)

うちはらふ枕のちりもかくれなくあれたる宿をてらす月影

uchiharau
makura no chiri mo
kakurenaku
aretaru yado o
terasu tsukikage
Needing to be swept away,
The dust upon my pillow
Cannot be concealed
In my dilapidated dwelling, when
The moonlight shines within…

Taifu
37

Right

秋の夜の月みる袖におく露やひるにかはれるしるしなるらん

aki no yo no
tsuki miru sode ni
oku tsuyu ya
hiru ni kawareru
shirushi naruran
On an autumn night
Upon my sleeves, when gazing at the moon,
Fall dewdrops—
That all is changed from daytime
Might they be a sign?

Yorisuke
38

In both the moon is bright, and I feel they reflect the essential meaning of the topic, but as its diction is currently slightly more familiar, I make the Left the winner. It would be possible to call this a tie, too, though.

SKKS XIII: 1209

Major Captain of the Left Asamitsu had not visited her for a long time, when he came to see her on her travels; having no pillow, they wove one out of grass.

あふことはこれやかぎりの旅ならん草のまくらも霜がれにけり

au koto wa
kore ya kagiri no
tabi naran
kusa no makura mo
shimogarenikeri
Will our meeting
Here be the limit of
Our journey?
Even our grassy pillow
Seared by distant frosts…

The Uma Handmaid

Jidai fudō uta’awase 116

Round One Hundred and Sixteen

Left

ひとりぬる人やしるらん秋の夜をながしとたれか君につげつる

hitori nuru
hito ya shiruran
aki no yo o
nagashi to tareka
kimi ni tsugetsuru
Sleeping alone
I know it all too well—that
An autumn night is
Long to someone
You’ve been telling!

231[1]

Right

こふれどもみぬめの浦のうき枕なみにのみやは袖のぬれける

kouredomo
minume no ura no
ukimakura
nami ni nomi ya wa
sode no nurekeru
I love him, yet
Unnoticed at Minume shore
Drifting with a sorry pillow
By the waves, alone,
Are my sleeves left drenched?

232[2]


[1] Goshūishū XVI: 906: Around the time the Naka Chancellor had begun visiting her, on the morning following a night when he had failed to call, she composed this to say that this night’s dawn had been particularly hard to bear.

[2] This poem does not appear in any other collection in the canon.

GSIS XII: 701

Composed when the Naka Chancellor [Fujiwara no Michitaka] returned from another woman’s residence with the dawn, but rather than coming in, remained outside and went back to his own house.

暁のつゆはまくらにおきけるを草葉のうへとなにおもひけん

akatuki no
tuyu Fa makura ni
okikeru wo
kusaba no uFe to
nani omoFiken
At the dawning
Dewdrops upon my pillow
Have fallen, but
Resting atop a blade of grass—
Is that what you think of me? [1]

The Kō Handmaid

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

[1] An allusive variation on Izumi shikibu-shū 304/Mandaishū XVIII: 3559.

Kinkai wakashū 34

After I had had various people compose on the scent of plum carried on the breeze.

梅がかをゆめの枕にさそひきてさむるまちける春の山風

ume ga ka o
yume no makura ni
sasoikite
samuru machikeru
haru no yamakaze
The scent of plum
To my pillow, where I lay dreaming
Was beckoned—
Waiting ‘til I awakened did
The mountain breeze in springtime.
Created with Soan.