Category Archives: Goshūishū

GSIS VI: 401

Composed on early snow for a palace poetry contest held in Eishō 4 [1049].

みやこにもはつゆきふればをの山のまきのすみがまたきまさるらん

miyako ni mo
Fatuyuki Fureba
wonoyama no
maki no sumigama
takimasaruran
In the capital, too
When the first snow falls
Among Onoyama’s
Evergreens the charcoal kilns
Seem to smoulder more and more.

Sagami

GSIS II: 145

Composed on seeing scattered cherry blossoms floating on the stream at his house.

ここにこぬ人もみよとてさくらばな水の心にまかせてぞやる

koko ni konu
Fito mo miyo tote
sakurabana
midu no kokoro ni
makasete zo yaru
To folk who fail to come
Here, I’d say, ‘Behold!’
O, cherry blossoms,
The water’s heart
I’ll trust, to send you on your way.

Ōe no Yoshitoki

GSIS II: 128

On viewing peach blossom on the Third Day of the Third Month.

みちよへてなりけるものをなどてかはももとしもはたなづけそめけん

mitiyo Fete
narikeru mono wo
nado te ka Fa
momo tosi mo Fata
nadukesomeken
Three thousand years
They take to ripen, so
Why is it that
A hundred still is
Their name?

Emperor Kazan

GSIS IX: 534

Composed on the road, when it was springtime, and he was on his way from the countryside to the capital.

みわたせばみやこはちかくなりぬらんすぎぬる山はかすみへだてつ

miwataseba
miyako Fa tikaku
narinuran
suginuru yama Fa
kasumi Fedatetu
When I gaze across,
The capital closer
Has become, it seems;
The mountains I have passed
Lie beyond the haze.

Minamoto no Michinari

GSIS V: 340

Composed on the conception of the autumn wind at a mountain retreat.

山ざとのしづの松がきひまをあらみいたくなふきそこがらしのかぜ

yamazato no
sidu no matugaki
Fima wo arami
itaku na Fuki so
kogarasi no kaze
Around this mountain dwelling
The peasant’s pinewood fence
Has gap aplenty;
Blow not so hard,
O, biting wind!

Ōmiya Echizen
大宮越前

GSIS XX: 1214

When someone was holding a plant-matching contest, and plants like morning glories were being compared, and a mirror blossom lay near her.

まけがたの耻かしげなる朝顏を鏡草にも見せてける哉

makegata no
Fadukasigenaru
asagaFo wo
kagamigusa ni mo
misetekeru kana
The loser
Seems so bashful:
The morning glory
To the mirror bloom
Has displayed herself!

Anonymous