Composed on an occasion when I had commanded many people to compose on the conception of the last day of the Ninth month.
はつせ山けふをかぎりとながめつつ入相のかねに秋ぞくれぬる
| hatsuseyama kyō o kagiri to nagametsutsu iriai no kane ni aki zo kurenuru | On Mount Hatsuse, Today marks the bound, I think While gazing out, while With the sunset bell Autumn passes into dusk. |
Round Twelve
Left (Tie)
柞原しぐれにそむるくれなゐはこずゑの風や吹きてほすらん
| hahasowara shigure ni somuru kurenai wa kozue no kaze ya fukitehosuran | The oak groves by The showers are dyed With scarlet— Might the wind through the treetops, Gusting, bring dryness? |
Shinkaku
95
Right
紅葉ばは入日の影のさしそひてゆふくれなゐの色ぞことなる
| momijiba wa irihi no kage no sashisoite yūkurenai no iro zo kotonaru | The autumn leaves By sunset’s light Are struck, and Evening’s scarlet Hue is startlingly fine! |
Lay Priest Norinaga
96
In the Left’s poem I would want there to be an expression such as ‘robe’ or ‘brocade’ which is being blown. As for the Right, it lacks any unusual diction, but has no noticeable faults, so these should tie.
With the passage of the day, so life falls into decline.
けふくれぬいのちもしかとおどろかす入あひのかねの音ぞかなしき
| kyō kurenu inochi mo shika to odorokasu iriai no kane no oto zo kanashiki | The day has turned to twilight, and so Does life before you Notice it; The sunset bell’s Toll is sad, indeed. |
Monk Jakunen
Left
おしなべて五月のそらを見渡せば草葉も水もみどりなりけり
| oshinabete satsuki no sora o miwataseba kusaba mo mizu mo midori narikeri | When the entire Fifth Month sky I gaze across, Blades of grass and water, too, Are green. |
72[1]
Right
くるるかとみれば明けぬる夏の夜をあかずとや鳴く山郭公
| kururu ka to mireba akenuru natsu no yo o akazu to ya naku yamahototogisu | Did you think ’twas sunset? When a glance would show the breaking dawn Of this summer night- Unsated by your song, do you sing on, Cuckoo in the mountains? |
73[2]
[1] Shinchokusenshū III: 152/Kokin rokujō I: 89
[1] Kokinshū III: 157, attributed to Mibu no Tadamine/Shinsen man’yōshū 57/Kokin rokujō VI: 4437
When he had gone to Saga to dig up plants for his garden.
日暮しに見れ共あかぬ女郎花のべにや今宵旅ねしなまし
| higurasi ni miredomo akanu wominaFesi nobe ni ya koyoFi tabinesinamasi |
At the sunset I see, yet cannot get my fill Of maidenflowers, so In the fields tonight Should I make a traveller’s bed? |
Fujiwara no Nagayoshi
藤原長能
