Summer Poems                  Twenty Rounds

Left

蝉のこゑ聞けばかなしな夏衣うすくや人のならむと思へば

semi no koe kikeba kanashi na natsu koromo usuku ya hito no naramu to omoeba

The cicadas’ cry: There’s a sadness in the sound; Summer clothes Are thin, as her feelings Will be, I feel.

41[1]

Right

にほひつつ散りにし花ぞおもほゆる夏はみどりの葉のみしげりて

nioitsutsu chirinishi hana zo omohoyuru natsu wa midori no ha nomi shigerite

Ever scented, The scattered blossoms, indeed, I do recall, for In summer the green Leaves, alone, are lush…

42

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[1] Kokinshū XIV: 715, attributed to Ki no Tomonori/Shinsen man’yōshū 43/Kokin rokujō VI: 3973