Once Narihira went hunting with Prince Koretaka and, after returning to their lodgings, they spent the whole night tippling and talking; when the moon, eleven-days old, was about to set, the Prince, drunk, prepared to go to bed, and Narihira composed this poem:
あかなくにまだきも月のかくるるか山のはにげていれずもあらなむ
akanaku ni
madaki mo tuki no
kakururu ka
yama no Fa nigete
irezu mo aranamu
Though I’ve not had my fill,
So early does the moon
Conceal itself…
Flee, mountains’ edge,
And let it not slip within!
Lord Narihira was married to the Daughter of Ki no Aritsune and, when they had had a disagreement, for a while he would only visit during the daytime and leave in the evening; this was composed and sent to him:
あま雲のよそにも人のなりゆくかさすがにめには見ゆる物から
ama kumo no
yoso ni mo Fito no
nariyuku ka
sasuga ni me ni Fa
miyuru mono kara
Heaven’s clouds’
Is where you seem
To be;
Even though in your wife’s sight
You do appear.
Narihira had been seeing a woman living in the western wing of the palace of the Gojô Empress, and loved her dearly. Shortly after the Tenth day of the First Month, she disappeared off to somewhere else and, though he found out where she was, he could not communicate with her. When Spring came and the plum blossom was in full bloom, on a night when the moon was especially beautiful, he was yearning for the love of the previous year and went back to the western wing and, until the moon was low in the sky, lay upon the bare boards; then he composed the following:
月やあらぬ春や昔の春ならぬわが身ひとつはもとの身にして
tuki ya aranu
Faru ya mukasi no
Faru naranu
wa ga mi Fitotu Fa
moto no mi ni site
Is this not that moon?
And Spring: is as the Spring of old
Is it not?
Only this body of mine
Is as it ever was…