The Beginning of Summer
Left
ふるさとはこだかけれどもきみならぬほととぎすにもうとまれにけり
furusato wa kodakakeredomo kimi naranu hototogisu ni mo utomarenikeri | Around this ancient estate The trees grow high, yet Not by you alone, By the cuckoo, too Am I despised. |
Tadamine
7
Right (Win)
やまがつのかきほにさけるうのはなはたがしろたへのころもかけしぞ
yamagatsu no kakiho ni sakeru u no hana wa ta ga shirotae no koromo kakeshi zo | Along the mountain man’s Lattice fence bloom Deutzia: Whose white mulberry Robes are hung there? |
Mitsune
8
Summer
Left
夏くればかみにあふひの草つみてかざしにいのるひとにばかりぞ
natsu kureba kami ni aoi no kusa tsumite kazashi ni inoru hito ni bakari zo | When the summer comes For the God, hollyhocks Are plucked, and for a Prayer placed in the hair of All folk, every one! |
7
夏草も茂りにければ駿河なる田子のうらなへ今やひくらん
natsu kusa mo shigerinikereba suruga naru tago no ura nae ima ya hikuran | The summer grasses, too, Have grown lush, so As Suruga’s Tago Bay, Do they now extend their charm? |
8
夏虫のやどるにまつは色ならで春秋空にうつろひやする
natsumushi no yadoru ni matsu wa iro narade haru aki sora ni utsuroi ya suru | The summer insects Lodge upon the pines Unchanging hues; Is it the spring and autumn skies Which fade away? |
9
Right
卯花の咲く夏の夜はやみなれどかきねにやどる月かとぞみる
u no hana no saku natsu no yo wa yami naredo kakine ni yadoru tsuki ka to zo miru | The deutzia flowers Bloom upon a summer night ‘Tis dark, yet Lodged upon my brushwood fence I wonder if I see the moon? |
10
五月きぬことかたらはむほととぎす君にあふちの花も咲きけり
satsuki kinu koto katarawamu hototogisu kimi ni auchi no hana mo sakikeri | That the Fifth Month has come Is announced by The cuckoo: For you, the chinaberry Blossoms, too, have bloomed. |
11
空蝉のからにはあらで置く露の身をあらたむる心なるべし
utsusemi no kara ni wa arade oku tsuyu no mi o aratamuru kokoro narubeshi | A cicada’s shed Shell I am not, for The dripping dew Does refresh my flesh, or So my heart seems to feel. |
12
A profusion of deutzia flowers in full bloom
Left
白妙に卯花さけるかきねをばつもりし雪とおもひけるかな
shirotae ni u no hana sakeru kakine o ba tsumorishi yuki to omoikeru kana | A spread of white mulberry cloth, The deutzias have bloomed Along my brushwood fence Drifting snow is piled, or So it seems! |
Minamoto no Narikata
13
Right
みわたせばたかねののべのうつぎ原みな白妙にさきにけるかな
miwatseba takane no nobe no utsugiwara mina shirotae ni sakinikeru kana | When I gaze across The high-peak meadows A field of deutzia, All as white as mulberry cloth, Have bloomed there. |
Ōe no Fumi’ichi
14
今朝見ずはまがひなましを夕顔の垣根に白く咲ける卯の花
kesa mizu wa
magainamashi o
yūgao no
kakine ni shiroku
sakeru u no hana |
This morning I failed to see, but
Perhaps, mistook
Moonflowers
On the lattice fence brightly
Blooming for deutzia… |
Ōe no Masafusa
This poem is also Eshishū 379
Composed on birds.
五月山卯の花月夜霍公鳥聞けども飽かずまた鳴かぬかも
satukiyama
u no panaduku yo
pototogisu
kikedomo akazu
mata nakanu kamo |
In the moutains in the Fifth Month,
On moonlit nghts when deutzias bloom
To the cuckoo
I listen, yet cannot get my fill;
O sing for me once more! |
Anonymous
'Simply moving and elegant'