ogi no ha wa kureyuku kaze ni otosu nari wa ga matsu hito no kakaramashikaba
The cogon grass fronds With the falling twilight breezes Sound out, though Were it the man I’m waiting for It would be better…
Major Controller of the Left Tametaka 31
Right
逢ふことはかた野にしげる荻の葉の音をばたつな秋ははつとも
au koto wa katano ni shigeru ogi no ha no oto oba tatsu na aki wa hatsu tomo
Our meeting, so hard: On the hillside thickly growing, O, cogon grass fronds Do not make a sound! For with autumn’s end I have had enough, yet..
Horikawa, Court Lady to Her Highness 32
I feel that the emotions encompassed by the sound of the wind in ‘Were it the man I’m waiting for / It would be better’ sounded more striking than ‘On the hillside thickly growing, / O, cogon grass fronds’.
hito shirezu harenu nageki no aru mono o amaneku terase aki no yo no tsuki
Unknown to all A grief which never clears I have, so Shine without restraint, O, moon this autumn night!
His Excellency, Nagazane, Former Assistant Governor General of Dazai 3
Right
山の端のうき雲晴れてすみのぼる月と共にもゆくこころかな
yama no ha no ukigumo harete suminoboru tsuki to tomo ni yuku kokoro kana
At the mountains’ edge The drifting clouds unfurl, and Clearly climbing With the moon Goes my spirit!
Lady Hyōenokami 4
In the poem of the Left, the expression following ‘A grief which never clears / I have, so’ is both forceful and lacking in gentility; in addition, the poem of the Right’s ‘drifting clouds clear away’ and what follows seems stagnant, so the light of the moon these nights seems to be of the same standard.
