Tag Archives: Sasa

Kinkai wakashū 222

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).

Teishi-in ominaeshi uta’awase 02

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

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 62

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

Chūgū no suke shige’ie ason ke uta’awase 96

小笹原夜の間の雪に埋もれてゐなの山風音ぞともしき

ozasawara
yo no ma no yuki ni
uzumorete
ina no yamakaze
oto zo tomoshiki
The groves of young broad-leaved bamboo
In night’s snowfall
Have been buried;
The wind in the Ina mountains
Sounds faint, indeed!

Minamoto no Moromitsu
源師光

Tametada-ke godo hyakushu 369

小笹原末葉に結ぶ白露の光の間にも澄める月影

ozasawara
sueba ni musubu
shiratsuyu no
hikari no ma ni mo
sumeru tsukikage
In the groves of young broad-leaved bamboo
The leaf-tips are bound
With silver dewdrops:
In those bright fragments
Clearly shines the moonlight.

Fujiwara no Chikataka
藤原親隆

Horikawa hyakushu 167

冬草と見えし春野の小笹原弥生の雨に深緑なる

fuyu kusa to
mieshi haruno no
ozasawara
yayoi no ame ni
fukamidori naru
A winter plant
They did appear in the fields in springtime:
The groves of young broad-leaved bamboo
By the Third Month’s rains
Turned the darkest green.

Fujiwara no Nakazane
藤原仲実