Left

はるなれど花もにほはぬ山里は物うかる音にうぐひすぞ鳴く

haru naredo hana mo niowanu yamazato wa mono’ukaru ne ni uguisu zo naku

‘Tis spring, yet The blossoms fail to shine This mountain retreat, where How reluctantly Does the warbler sing.

17[1]

Right

咲く花は千種ながらにあだなれど誰かは春うらみはてたる

saku hana wa chigusa nagara ni ada naredo tare ka wa haru o uramihatetaru

The blossoms bloom In countless kinds Most fragile, yet Who is it that for springtime Is filling with despite?

18[2]

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[1] A variant of this poem appears in Kokinshū (I: 15), with the headnote ‘A Poem from the Contest held by the Empress Dowager during the Reign of the Kanpyō Emperor’: 春たてど花もにほはぬ山里は物うかる音に鶯ぞなく haru tatedo / hana mo niowanu / yamazato wa / mono’ukaru ne ni / uguisu zo naku ‘Spring has come, yet / The blossoms fail to shine / This mountain retreat, where / How reluctantly / Does the warbler sing…’ Ariwara no Muneyana.

[2] Kokinshū II: 101, attributed to Fujiwara no Okikaze.