On a day when the gentlemen from the Nijō Palace were bestowing charitable gifts, seeing large number of large boxes, Tamesuke said:
かの櫃は何ぞの櫃ぞおぼつかな
| kano Fitu Fa nani zo no Fitu zo obotu kana |
Yonder box: What lies within, I wonder? |
I replied:
かたひの前のほかひなりけり
| kataFi no maFe no FokaFi narikeri |
Placed before the beggars’ Arms, their alms! |
One night in the year before Tamesuke was due to receive his cap of rank, on a night in the Eighth Month when the moon was shining brightly, I was talking to him and said:
數ふればいまいつゝきになりにけり
| kazoFureba ima itutuki ni narinikeri |
Counting up Now, five months Is all you have to go! |
He concluded:
むつきにならば訪ふ人もあらじ
| mutuki ni naraba toFu Fito mo arazi |
If this were the sixth, No one will enquire of me! |
While waiting for the first cuckoo at the courtiers hall:
かき曇りなどか音せぬほとゝぎす
| kakikumori nado ka oto senu Fototogisu |
Cloud-wracked, it is, and Why sing you not a note, O, cuckoo? |
Tamesuke heard me and said:
鎌鞍山に道や惑へる
| kamakurayama ni miti ya madoFeru |
In the darkness of Mount Kamakura Have you lost your way? |