On summer showers, for a folding screen when Shakua’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated.
小山田にひくしめなはのうちはへてくちやしぬらむ五月雨の比
| oyamada ni hiku shimenawa no uchihaete kuchi ya shinuramu samidare no koro | Around the little mountain paddies Hang sacred ropes Everywhere continuing— Might they rot away During these days of summer showers. |
The Regent and Chancellor
Composed at Hiroshi Marōdo Shrine, recalling a visit to Shirayama, when he was Governnor of Kaga.
としふともこしの白山わすれずはかしらのゆきをあはれともみよ
| toshi futomo koshi no shirayama wasurezu wa kashira no yuki o aware tomo miyo | The years have passed, yet The mountains white at Shirayama in Koshi Never will I forget! So, The snow above my brow, O, behold with pity! |
Master of the Left Capital Office Akisuke
A summer poem, when she presented a hundred poem sequence.
かへりこぬむかしをいまとおもひねの夢の枕ににほふ橘
| kaerikonu mukashi o ima to omoine no yume no makura ni niou tachibana | Never to return is The past, but in the present It fills my sleepy thoughts A’dreaming on my pillow With the scent of orange blossom.[1] |
Princess Shokushi
[1] An allusive variation on: Sent to a lady with whom he had once been intimate, after some years had passed. いにしへのしづのをだまき繰りかへし昔を今になすよしもがな inishie no / shizu no odamaki / kurikaeshi / mukashi o ima ni / nasu yoshi mogana ‘In times long gone / Thread upon a bobbin was / Wound back— / Just so, the present into the past / I wish we could make!’ It seems, though, that the lady thought nothing of it. (Ise monogatari 65)
Composed while gazing at some sweet-flags, which had been planted by her child who had died young.
あやめぐさたれしのべとかうゑおきてよもぎがもとのつゆと消えけん
| ayamegusa tare shinobe to ka ue’okite yomogi ga moto no tsuyu to kieken | These sweet-flags, O, who might recall, I wonder? For you planted them And, among the tangled mugwort roots Seemed to vanish as the dew… |
Kayanoin no Yūshide
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
