In place of a man who was in love with someone of much higher status.
つきもせずこひになみだをわかすかなこやななくりのいでゆなるらん
tuki mo sezu koFi ni namida wo wakasu kana koya nanakuri no ideyu naruran | Being inexhaustibly In love makes tears Gush forth! They like Nanakuri’s Spouting hot spring do seem! |
Sagami
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
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
Composed on falling blossoms on a mountain path.
さくらばなみちみえぬまでちりにけりいかがはすべきしがのやまごえ
sakurabana miti mienu made tirinikeri ikaga Fa subeki siga no yamagoe | Cherry blossoms Until the path is lost to view Have fallen; Whatever can I do On the path across the Shiga Mountains? |
Tachibana no Narimoto
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
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
Composed on the conception of being buried in frosty fallen leaves.
落ちつもる庭の木の葉を夜のほどにはらひてけりと見する朝霜
otitumoru niwa no ko no Fa wo yo no hodo ni FaraFitekeri to misuru asasimo | Fallen, piled high at My estate, the leaves from the trees Within the space of a single night Have been swept away, It seems, by the morning frost. |
Anonymous
Composed on the conception of leaves falling in the rain.
木の葉散る宿は聞き分くかたぞなき時雨する夜も時雨せぬ夜も
ko no Fa chiru yado Fa kikiwaku kata zo naki siguresuru yo mo siguresenu yo mo | Leaves falling from the trees At my house: listening, I Have no way to tell between Nights when showers fall, and Nights when showers fall not… |
Minamoto no Yorizane
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
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
'Simply moving and elegant'