Tag Archives: year

Teiji’in tenjōbito uta’awase 01

Among the courtiers in service to His Majesty, former Emperor Uda, it was possible to pick out those who had some sensitivity and those who did not, so in a certain year, when the kōshin rite came around on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, those gentlemen who were thought to have this sensitivity spent the day composing poems on the topic of ‘feelings after meeting at Tanabata’ which were divided into teams and matched.

Left

としごとにこりずやあるらんたなばたのあひてこひしきわかれのみする

toshigoto ni
korizu ya aruran
tanabata no
aite koishiki
wakare nomi suru
Every single year
Does she never learn, I wonder?
The Weaver Maid
Meets and then with love
Does simply part.

1

Right (Win)

おもひやる心のそらにしらるればたなばたつめのわかれかなしな

omoiyaru
kokoro no sora ni
shirarureba
tanabatatsume no
wakare kanashiki
Yearning fills
The heavens of her heart—
How well she knows it, for
The Weaver Maid’s
Parting is so sad.

2

GSIS X: 597

Composed when remembering someone who had passed away in the autumn.

としごとにむかしはとほくなりゆけどうかりし秋はまたもきにけり

tosi goto ni
mukasi Fa toFoku
nariyukedo
ukarisi aki Fa
mata mo kinikeri
Every single year
That long-gone day more distant
Grows, yet
Despised autumn
Has come round once more.

Minamoto no Shigeyuki

SZS IV: 230

Composed on the conception of the beginning of autumn.

秋はきぬ年もなかばにすぎぬとやをぎ吹くかぜのおどろかすらん

aki wa kinu
toshi mo nakaba ni
suginu to ya
ogi fuku kaze no
odorokasuran
Autumn, indeed, has come; and
The year, too, has its midpoint
Reached, perhaps?
The gusting wind upon the silver grass
Seems to startle me awake.

Monk Jakunen

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

Yōzei-in uta’awase (Engi jūsan-nen kugatsu kokonoka) 22

Left

をしめどもとまらぬ秋は常盤山もみぢはてぬとみてもゆるさじ

oshimedomo
tomaranu aki wa
tokiwayama
momiji hatenu to
mite mo yurusaji
I regret it, yet
Autumn lingers not
Upon the evergreen mountains
The scarlet leaves have yet to end,
I see and would not let them go.

43

Right

としごとにとまらぬ秋とおもひなばてもろき人もをしまざらまし

toshigoto ni
tomaranu aki to
omoinaba
temoroki hito mo
oshimazaramashi
If, that every single year
Autumn lingers not,
I did not think, then
Tear-filled folk
I would not have regret it.

44

Yōzei-in uta’awase (Engi jūsan-nen kugatsu kokonoka) 01

Regretting the passage of autumn

Left (Win)

としごとにとまらぬ秋としりながらをしむ心のこりずもあるかな

toshigoto ni
tomaranu aki to
shirinagara
oshimu kokoro no
korizu mo aru kana
Every single year
Autumn will not linger
I know, yet
That my heart regrets this
Is something I do not dislike!

1

Right

をしといひてうみへもさそへとびわたるいづれかあきのわたりなるらん

oshi to iite
umie mo sasoe
tobiwataru
izure ka aki no
watarinaruran
Filled am I with regret, for
The seashore beckons, and
‘Twill fly across—
When will autumn
Pass by, I wonder?

2

Sahyōe no suke sadafumi uta’awase 6

The Beginning of Autumn

Left (Win—in a certain book Tie)

しぐれにもあめにもあらぬはつぎりのたつにもそらはさしくもりけり

shigure ni mo
ame ni mo aranu
hatsugiri no
tatsu ni mo sora wa
sashikumorikeri
Neither a shower
Nor rain,
The first mists
Simply rise into the skies
And cover all with cloud.

11

Right

としごとにあふとはすれどたなばたのぬるよのかずぞすくなかりける

toshi goto ni
au to suredo
tanabata no
nuru yo no kazu zo
sukunakarikeru
Every year
She meets him, yet
The Weaver Maid’s
Nights of passion
Are few indeed.

Mitsune
12

Uda-in uta’awase 2

Spring Blossom

Left (Tie)

としかはるのはなほことになりぬらししかのこまだらにゆきもけにけり

toshi kawaru
no wa na
ho koto ni
narinurashi
shika no ko madara ni
yuki mo kenikeri
With the changing of the year,
The meadows, particularly, more different
Seem to do be—
Dappled as a fawn,
The snow, too, vanishes away.

Tsurayuki
3

Right

しらゆきのきえてみどりにかはるのはながれていろのうつらざらなむ

shirayuki no
kiete midori ni
kawaru no wa
na
garete iro no
utsurazaranamu
The snow, so white,
Vanishes and to green shoots
Do change the meadows, with
Flowing meltwater—O, that hue
I would not have fade away!

Tadamine
4

GSIS XI: 661

Composed on the conception of love as a year passes when people were at the residence of the Regent and former Minister of the Left.

われがみはとがへるたかとなりにけりとしはふれどもこゐはわすれず

ware ga mi Fa
togaFeru taka to
narinikeri
tosi Fa Furedomo
kowi Fa wasurezu
My flesh as
A hawk returning to its mews
Has become;
A year has passed, yet
This love I will not forget.

The Minister of the Left [Minamoto no Toshifusa]

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 84

Left

紅の色にはいでじかくれぬのしたにかよひてこひはしぬとも

kurenai no
iro ni wa ideji
kakure nu no
shita ni kayoite
koi wa shinu tomo
The crimson
Of passion I’ll not display,
Beneath this hidden marsh
Flow waters back and forth,
Though I die of this love.

Tomonori
162[1]

Right

契りけむ心ぞつらき織女の年に一たびあふはあふかは

chigirikemu
kokoro zo tsuraki
tanabata no
toshi ni hito tabi
au wa au ka wa
To be bound is
Hard on the heart, indeed!
Does the Weaver Maid
But once a year
Truly have a meeting?

Okikaze
163


[1] Kokinshū XIII: 661/Shinsen man’yōshū 199/Kokin rokujō III: 1683