Recalling love beneath the moon.
春やあらぬ月は見しよの空ながらなれし昔の影ぞ恋しき
| haru ya aranu tsuki wa mishi yo no sora nagara nareshi mukashi no kage zo koishiki | Is this not that spring? The moon is as I beheld it that night Within the skies, yet I had grown accustomed, long ago, to Her face, so much more dear to me… |
496
When the Gokyōgoku Regent ordered her to produce a hundred poem sequence.
いくめぐり過行く秋にあひぬらむかはらぬ月の影をながめて
| iku meguri sugiyuku aki ni ainuramu kawaranu tsuki no kage o nagamete | How many circuits, Passing through autumn Might I have encountered, The unchanging moon’s Lit face within my gaze? |
Kojijū
For a folding screen, where people were relaxing at a house with a pond, on the night of the 15th of the Eighth Month.
水のおもにてる月なみをかぞふればこよひぞ秋のも中なりける
| midu no omo ni teru tukinami wo kazoFureba koyoFi zo aki no monaka narikeru | Upon the water’s face Shine waves of moonlight; Counting reveals that Tonight is autumn’s Centrepoint! |
Minamoto no Shitagō
Topic unknown.
庭のおもは月もらぬまで成りにけりこずゑになつのかげしげりつつ
| niwa no omo wa tsuki moranu made narinikeri kozue ni natsu no kage shigeritsutsu | The garden’s face Untouched by drops of moonlight Has become; Upon the treetops summer’s Shadows ever lie lush. |
Former Emperor Shirakawa
After the death of Imperial Princess Shinshi, he had heard that Imperial Princess Sōshi was to move to her former residence, so he went to inspect it, but found everything unchanged; deep in memories of the distant past, he said this to one of the ladies-in-waiting.
ありすがはおなじながれはかはらねどみしやむかしの影ぞわすれぬ
| arisugawa onaji nagare wa kawaranedo mishi ya mukashi no kage zo wasurenu | The Arisu River’s Flow is just the same and All unchanged, yet She who saw it, long ago— Her face never will I forget! |
The Naka-no-in Minister of the Right
Left
人しれずしたにながるる涙川せきとどめなむかげは見ゆると
| hito shirezu shita ni nagaruru namidagawa seki todomenamu kage wa miyuru to | Unknown to all Beneath there flows A river of tears; O, for a dam to halt it, that I could glimpse her face… |
192[1]
Right
もえもあはぬこなたかなたの思ひかな涙の河の中にゆけばか
| moe mo awanu konata kanata no omoi kana namida no kawa no naka ni yukeba ka | Burning, unmatched, are My multitude of Passion’s fires! For into a river of tears Have I plunged? |
Tsurayuki
193
[1] Shokugosenshū XI: 640/Shinsen man’yōshū 227.
Left
白玉のきえて涙と成りぬれば恋しきかげを袖にこそ見れ
| shiratama no kiete namida to narinureba koishiki kage o sode ni koso mire | Pearls Vanish and to tears Have turned, so Her beloved face I will see upon my sleeves. |
160
Right
人を見ておもふ事だに有るものを空にこふるぞはかなかりける
| hito o mite omou koto dani aru mono o sora ni kōru zo hakanakarikeru | I saw her, and Thoughts simply Filled me, but In the skies, love is Fleeting, indeed! |
161
A poem from the Poetry Contest held by the Dowager Empress during the Reign of the Kanpyō Emperor.
人しれずしたにながるる涙川せきとどめなむかげは見ゆると
| hito shirezu shita ni nagaruru namidagawa seki todomenamu kage wa miyuru to | Unknown to all Beneath there flows A river of tears; O, for a dam to halt it, that I could glimpse her face… |
Anonymous
