Dew upon the plains.
久かたの空とぶかりのなみだかもおほあらきののささのうへのつゆ
| hisakata no ama tobu kari no namida kamo ōarakino no sasa no ue no tsuyu | Eternal Heaven-flying goose Tears, perhaps? Upon Ōaraki Plain, Dew upon the dwarf-bamboo…[1] |
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. なきわたるかりの涙やおちつらむ物思ふやどの萩のうへのつゆ nakiwataru / kari no namida ya / ochitsuran / mono’omou yado no / hagi no ue no tsuyu ‘Calling across / Did the geese let tears / Fall? / My dwelling, lost in thought, / Has dew upon the bush clover.’ Anonymous (KKS IV:221); and: 如是為而也 尚哉将老 三雪零 大荒木野之 小竹尓不有九二 kakushite ya / nao ya oinuramu / miyuki furu / ōarakino no / shino ni aranaku ni ‘Is this how it is to be? / Have I yet grown old / Though covered with fair snow / On Ōaraki Plain / An arrow-bamboo I am not…’ Anonymous (MYS VII: 1349).
Left
あきののをみなへしるともささわけにぬれにしそでやはなとみゆらむ
| aki no no o mina heshiru to mo sasa wake ni nurenishi sode ya hana to miyuramu | Through the autumn meadows Everyone knows to pass, yet Forging through the dwarf bamboo Will my sleeves, so drenched, Appear as the flowers do?[1] |
3
Right
をみなへしあきののかぜにうちなびきこころひとつをたれによすらん
| ominaeshi aki no nokaze ni uchinabiki kokoro hitotsu o tare ni yosuran | The maidenflower, With a breeze across the autumn fields, Waves back and forth; Having but a single heart, To whom does she incline, I wonder? |
The Minister of the Left[2]
4[3]
[1] This poem is an acrostic, where the syllables of the word ‘maidenflower’ (ominaeshi) are included as part of other words in the poem. It is thus understood that the final reference to ‘flowers’ (hana 花) is to these.
[2] Fujiwara no Tokihira 藤原時平 (871-909).
[3] Kokinshū IV: 230; Shinsen man’yōshū 532; Kokin rokujō 3660
Left
篠のはにおく霜よりもひとりぬる我が衣手ぞさえまさりける
| sasa no ha ni oku simo yori mo hitori nuru wa ga koromode zo saemasarikeru | On bamboo grass leaves Settles frost, but Sleeping alone, My sleeves Are colder still by far. |
Tomonori
121[1]
Right
流れ行く水こほりぬる冬さへや猶うき草の跡はさだめぬ
| nagareyuku mizu kōrinuru fuyu sae ya nao ukikusa no ato wa sadamenu | The flowing Waters have frozen With the winter, even Still the waterweed Has left no clear trace at all. |
122
[1] Kokinshū XII: 563/Shinsen man’yōshū 159/Kokin rokujō I: 668
