冬こもり春咲く花を手折り持ち千たびの限り恋ひわたるかも
| puyu komori paru saku pana wo tawori moti titabi no kagiri kopiwataru kamo |
Sealed in winter Springtime’s blooming blossoms Do I take in hand – A thousand times and more Does love for you fill my thoughts. |
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
柿本人麻呂歌集
ほのぼのと明石の浜を見渡しば春の浪わけ出づる船の帆
| Fonobono to akasi no Fama wo miwataseba Faru no namiwake iduru Fune no Fo |
In the gloaming When across the beach at Akashi I sweep my gaze, Cutting through the springtime waves Are the sails of departing boats. |
Minamoto no Shitagō
源順
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
While on the path across the Shiga Mountains, he met a large number of women, and later composed this and sent it to them.
あづさゆみはるの山辺をこえくれば道もさりあへず花ぞちりける
| adusa yumi Faru no yamabe o koekureba miti mo sariaFezu Fana zo tirikeru |
A catalpa bow When the springtime mountains I traverse I cannot pass along the way So many flowers have fallen! |
Tsurayuki
春山の霧に惑へる鴬も我れにまさりて物思はめやも
| paru yama no kiri ni madoperu ugupisu mo ware ni masarite mono’omopame ya mo |
In the springtime mountains’ Mists astray Is the bush-warbler More than I Lost in gloomy thought? |
春山の友鴬の泣き別れ帰ります間も思ほせ我れを
| paru yama no tomo ugupisu no nakiwakare kaperimasu ma mo omopose ware wo |
In springtime in the mountains Bush-warblers Cry in parting; As you make your way back home Think so of me! |
梅の花散り乱ひたる岡びには鴬鳴くも春かたまけて
| ume no pana tirimagapitaru okabi ni pa ugupisu naku mo paru katamukete |
The plum blossom Has fallen all around The hillsides, where The warbler sings Awaiting the springtime. |
Clerk of Ōsumi, Kaji no Haramaro
大隅目榎氏鉢麻呂
ともかほに鶯ばかりおとづれて霞にむせぶ春の山里
| tomogao ni uguisu bakari otozurete kasumi ni musebu haru no yamazato |
The only friendly face is The bush warbler Come visiting This haze-choked Mountain retreat in springtime! |
Cloistered Imperial Prince Shukaku (1150-1202)
守覚法親王
春のをかにのぼりて見けむ竹取はかみのよならぬことをしぞ思ふ
| haru no oka ni noborite mikemu takatori wa kami no yo naranu koto o shi zo omou |
In springtime, the hills Did climb to see The bamboo-cutter: ‘This is no realm of the Gods’ He thought… |
Minamoto no Morotoki
源師時
Left (Win).
戀詫びて我と眺めし夕暮も馴るれば人の形見がほなる
| koiwabite ware to nagameshi yūgure mo narureba hito no katamigao naru |
Suffering with love I have gazed Upon the evening dark, So used to it that it Has become your keepsake! |
Lord Sada’ie.
827
Right.
明ぼののあはればかりは忍ぶれど今日をば出でず春の夕暮
| akebono no aware bakari wa shinoburedo kyō oba idezu haru no yūgure |
The dawn’s Sadness, I do just Bear, but, oh, Today, it will never come – The evening in springtime! |
Nobusada.
828
The Right state: when one understands the purport of the Left’s poem, it comes as a revelation. The Left state: in the Right’s poem we are unable to grasp the sense of ‘it will never come’ (idezu). In addition, the conception of Love seems lacking.
In judgement: both poems ‘evenings’ are support by little diction, yet the conception of Love is profound, indeed, such that my own shallow knowledge finds it difficult to grasp. However, the Right’s ‘Today, it will never come’ (kyō oba idezu) certainly does seem difficult to comprehend. I would have to say that the Left’s ‘So used to it that it’ (narureba hito no) is marginally superior.