Tag Archives: autumn

Kinkai wakashū 209

Bush clover at the roadside.

みちのべのをのの夕霧たちかへりみてこそゆかめ秋はぎの花

michi no be no
ono no yūgiri
tachikaeri
mite koso yukame
akihagi no hana
By the roadside
Across the meadows evening mists
Rise and fall endlessly;
Thus would I go and see
The autumn bush clover blooms.[1]

[1] An allusive variation on: For a poetry competition held in the Tenryaku era. 春ふかみゐてのかは浪たちかへり見てこそゆかめ山吹の花 haru fukami / ide no kawanami / tachikaeri / mite koso yukame / yamabuki no hana ‘In the depths of spring / Waves on the river at Idé / Rise and fall endlessly; / Thus would I go and see / The kerria blooms…’ Minamoto no Shitagō (SIS I: 68).

Kinkai wakashū 202

Composed when I was in one of the aisles of the Shōchōjuin on the night of the 14th of the Seventh Month, and the moon was shining in.

ながめやる軒のしのぶの露の間にいたくなふけそ秋のよの月

nagameyaru
noki no shinobu no
tsuyu no ma ni
itaku na fuke so
aki no yo no tsuki
Gazing out upon
The ferns beneath the eaves,
In the space between the dewdrops,
Do not set so,
O, moon, this autumn night!

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 35

Round Eleven

Left (Win)

をしみかねあかぬ名残のくるしきに入るまではみじ秋のよの月

oshimikane
akanu nagori no
kurushiki ni
iru made wa miji
aki no yo no tsuki
Unbearable regret,
Unending is a memento
Most painful—
I would not watch until it sets:
The moon this autumn night.

Kenshō
69

Right

月影のかたぶくかたにさしいればやどのうちにも霜ぞ置きける

tsukigage no
katabuku kata ni
sashi’ireba
yado no uchi ni mo
shimo zo okikeru
The moonlight as
It descends
Shines in, so
Within my lodging
Frost, indeed, has fallen.

Lord Yorisuke
70

The Left, saying that the setting of the moon is a painful memento, and thus not watching it until the end seems excessively topsy-turvy. The Right, saying that the setting moon enters one’s lodging, is both pretentious and misses the point—surely it depends on the construction of the house! This shows know knowledge of how diction should be used, so the Left has to win.