Love on Meeting
Left
ゆめのごとなどかよるのみきみをみんくるるまつまもさだめなきよを
| yume no goto nadoka yoru nomi kimi o min kururu matsu ma mo sadame naki yo o | In every dream Why at night, alone Might I see you? Time spent pining for the dark Is so uncertain… |
23[i]
Right (Win)
あひみてもなほなぐさまぬこころかないくちよねてかこひはさむらむ
| ai mite mo nao nagusamanu kokoro kana iku chiyo nete ka koi wa samuramu | Seeing and meeting you Has not eased My heart! How many thousand nights of sleep Might restore my love to what it was? |
24
[i] An almost identical poem is included in Saigū nyōgo kishi joō uta’awase (23). The same poem is also included in Shūishū (XII: 734), attributed to Tadami, with the headnote ‘From a poetry match held in the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’, and also in Shūishō (VII: 264) as an anonymous poem with the headnote ‘Poetry Match held in the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’.
Composed when I heard that someone had died with the dawn, even though I had not heard they had been ill for several days.
聞きてしもおどろくべきにあらねどもはかなき夢の世にこそ有りけれ
| kikiteshi mo odorokubeki ni aranedomo hakanaki yume no yo ni koso arikere | When I heard the news Especially startled I was not, yet A fleeting dream This world truly is! |
716
Composed and sent to a certain person’s residence to say how transient this mundane world is.
世中にかしこきこともはかなきも思ひしとけば夢にぞ有りける
| yo no naka ni kashikoki koto mo hakanaki mo omoishi tokeba yume ni zo arikeru | In this mundane world The glories and Trivialities both, When you think them over, Are but dreams… |
715
うつつともゆめともしらぬ世にしあればありとてありとたのむべき身か
| utsutsu tomo yume tomo shiranu yo ni shi areba ari tote ari to tanomubeki mi ka | Whether ‘tis reality Or dream, I know not of This world, so Do I live? Is that something Upon which to rely?[i] |
712
[i] See: Topic unknown. 世の中は夢か現か現とも夢とも知らずありてなければ yo no naka wa / yume ka utsutsu ka / utsutsu tomo / yume tomo shirazu / arite nakereba ‘Is this world of ours / A dream? Or is it real? / If it be real, / Or dream, I know not; / Here, and yet not, so…’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XVIII: 942)
Cherry.
うつ蝉の世はゆめなれやさくらばなさきてはちりぬあはれいつまで
| utsusemi no yo wa yume nare ya sakurabana sakite wa chirinu aware itsu made | Were this cicada shell World a dream to be, then Would the cherry blossom, Bloom and then scatter? How long will such sorrow last?[i] |
[i] See: Topic unknown. うつせみの世にも似たるか花ざくらさくと見しまにかつちりにけり utsusemi no / yo ni mo nitaru ka / hanazakura / saku to mishi ma ni / katsu chirinikeri ‘This cicada-shell / World do you resemble, / O, cherry blossom? / The moment that I see you bloom / Have you already scattered.’ Anonymous (Kokinshū II: 73)
On the conception of ‘love, having once met, but no longer’ for the Poetry Match held at the Poetry Office.
ゆめかとよみし面影もちぎりしもわすれずながらうつつならねば
| yume ka to yo mishi omokage mo chigiri shi mo wasurezu nagara utsutsu naraneba | Was it a dream? Or not? That face I saw, and His promises, too, I cannot forget, Though real they were not… |
The Daughter of Toshinari, Assistant Master of the Dowager Empress Household Office
