Spring 1

In the Second Month of the Fourth Year of Kenpô (1216), I selected and ordered two hundred of my own meagre works. In the Sixth Month of the following year, I took the order apart and rearranged it somewhat. In the Seventh Year of Kenpô, I secretly presented it to His Majesty, and received an Imperial judgement upon it.

Left (Tie)

春日野にさくや梅が枝雪まより今は春べと若菜つみつゝ

kasugano ni
saku ya ume ga e
yukima yori
ima wa harube to
wakana tsumitsutsu
On Kasuga field,
O, branches of blooming plum blossom!
From the spaces in the snow,
‘Now Spring is come!’
Do we pluck fresh greens.

1

Right

消なくに又やみ山をうづむらん若菜つむ野も淡雪ぞ降

kienakuni
mata ya miyama o
uzumuran
wakana tsumu no mo
awayuki zo furu
Has it not gone, and yet
The mountains’ depths
Does bury?
Upon the fresh-green picking fields
A spume of snow falls on…

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