The Beginning of Summer
Left
ふるさとはこだかけれどもきみならぬほととぎすにもうとまれにけり
furusato wa kodakakeredomo kimi naranu hototogisu ni mo utomarenikeri | Around this ancient estate The trees grow high, yet Not by you alone, By the cuckoo, too Am I despised. |
Tadamine
7
Right (Win)
やまがつのかきほにさけるうのはなはたがしろたへのころもかけしぞ
yamagatsu no kakiho ni sakeru u no hana wa ta ga shirotae no koromo kakeshi zo | Along the mountain man’s Lattice fence bloom Deutzia: Whose white mulberry Robes are hung there? |
Mitsune
8
Summer
Left
夏くればかみにあふひの草つみてかざしにいのるひとにばかりぞ
natsu kureba kami ni aoi no kusa tsumite kazashi ni inoru hito ni bakari zo | When the summer comes For the God, hollyhocks Are plucked, and for a Prayer placed in the hair of All folk, every one! |
7
夏草も茂りにければ駿河なる田子のうらなへ今やひくらん
natsu kusa mo shigerinikereba suruga naru tago no ura nae ima ya hikuran | The summer grasses, too, Have grown lush, so As Suruga’s Tago Bay, Do they now extend their charm? |
8
夏虫のやどるにまつは色ならで春秋空にうつろひやする
natsumushi no yadoru ni matsu wa iro narade haru aki sora ni utsuroi ya suru | The summer insects Lodge upon the pines Unchanging hues; Is it the spring and autumn skies Which fade away? |
9
Right
卯花の咲く夏の夜はやみなれどかきねにやどる月かとぞみる
u no hana no saku natsu no yo wa yami naredo kakine ni yadoru tsuki ka to zo miru | The deutzia flowers Bloom upon a summer night ‘Tis dark, yet Lodged upon my brushwood fence I wonder if I see the moon? |
10
五月きぬことかたらはむほととぎす君にあふちの花も咲きけり
satsuki kinu koto katarawamu hototogisu kimi ni auchi no hana mo sakikeri | That the Fifth Month has come Is announced by The cuckoo: For you, the chinaberry Blossoms, too, have bloomed. |
11
空蝉のからにはあらで置く露の身をあらたむる心なるべし
utsusemi no kara ni wa arade oku tsuyu no mi o aratamuru kokoro narubeshi | A cicada’s shed Shell I am not, for The dripping dew Does refresh my flesh, or So my heart seems to feel. |
12
霍公鳥鳴く声聞くや卯の花の咲き散る岡に葛引く娘女
pototogisu
naku kowe kiku ya
unopana no
sakitiru woka ni
kuzu piku wotome |
The cuckoos’
Echoing call, did you hear?
Where deutzia
Bloom and scatter on the hill
You maidens gathering arrowroot… |
今朝見ずはまがひなましを夕顔の垣根に白く咲ける卯の花
kesa mizu wa
magainamashi o
yūgao no
kakine ni shiroku
sakeru u no hana |
This morning I failed to see, but
Perhaps, mistook
Moonflowers
On the lattice fence brightly
Blooming for deutzia… |
Ōe no Masafusa
This poem is also Eshishū 379
Composed on birds.
五月山卯の花月夜霍公鳥聞けども飽かずまた鳴かぬかも
satukiyama
u no panaduku yo
pototogisu
kikedomo akazu
mata nakanu kamo |
In the moutains in the Fifth Month,
On moonlit nghts when deutzias bloom
To the cuckoo
I listen, yet cannot get my fill;
O sing for me once more! |
Anonymous
見わたせばとをちのさとのうづきばらうづきになれや花白く見ゆ
miwataseba
tōchi no sato no
uzukibara
uzuki ni nare ya
hana shiroku miyu |
When I look across
Far distant Tōchi’s
Deutzia fields,
When the Fourth Month comes, I wonder
Will the blooms be white? |
Minamoto no Yorimasa
源頼政
Composed on a fence, covered with deutzia blooms.
いづれをか分きて問はまし山里の垣根続きに咲ける卯の花
idure wo ka
wakite toFamasi
yamazato no
kakine tsuduki ni
sakeru u no Fana |
Where
Do they part, I wonder?
This mountain dwelling’s
Fence, joined with
Deutzia… |
Ōe no Motofusa
When I had been conversing with a lady for some time, I said this to her around the Fourth Month:
卯花の垣根がくれのほとゝぎすわが忍び音といづれほどへぬ
u no Fana no
kakinegakure no
Fototogisu
wa ga sinobine to
idure Fodo Fenu |
Among the scattered, white deutzia blooms
Along the fence concealed is
A cuckoo;
My plaintive cry, or his,
Which has lasted longer? |
Deutzia.
袖ぬらすわが身のためや山里の世をうの花も波とみゆらん
sode nurasu
wa ga mi no tame ya
yamazato no
yo no unohana mo
nami to miyuran |
Sleeves soaked,
Is it for me that
My mountain dwelling’s
Deutzia blooms – how cruel the world –
Do seem as waves? |
On deutzia.
卯の花やくらき柳の及ごし
u no hana ya
kuraki yanagi no
oyobigoshi |
Above the white deutzia flowers
The dark willow tree
Seems to be stooping. |
(1694)
'Simply moving and elegant'