East
朝日かげのぼる梢をから人のあふぎそめてもいく世経ぬらん
asahi kage noboru kozue o karabito no ōgi somete mo iku yo henuran | The morning sunlight Climbing through the treetops Is as a Cathay Fan: so dyed How many are the ages passed? |
Kanō Morohira
加納諸平
A poem presented to Prince Osakabe, composed on viewing the image of a sage.
とこしへに夏冬行けや裘扇放たぬ山に住む人
tokosipe ni natu puyu yuke ya kapagoromo apugi patanu yama ni sumu pito |
Not eternally, As summer and winter’s passage, yet His coat of fur, and Fan, never will he release This mountain-dwelling man… |
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
柿本人麻呂歌集
Fans (扇)
つねよりも身にもしむかな夕ざれの君にあふぎのかぜの気色は
tsune yori mo mi ni mo shimu kana yūsare no kimi ni ōgi no kaze no keshiki wa |
More than normal does It pierce my soul! At early evening, The sight of you By fan’s breeze brushed… |
Minamoto no Akinaka
An allusive variation on: Horikawa hyakushu 646.
On the 21st day of the Fifth Month Tenroku 4 [973], former emperor En’yū, who was then the sovereign, visited the Princess of the First Order [Shishi 資子] and, following a loss at a game with go counters, on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, the Princess had a fan wrapped in thin cloth and presented to the imperial pantry.
天の川河辺涼しき七夕に扇の風を猶やかさまし
ama no kaFa kaFabe suzusiki tanabata ni aFugi no kaze wo naFo ya kasamasi |
On the River of Heaven’s Shore, cool In early autumn Is this fan’s breeze: I wonder, should I lend it you more? |
Nakatsukasa
This poem is also Wakan rōeishū 201.
Composed for a folding screen of the twelve months, during the Engi period.
夏はつる扇と秋の白露といづれかまづはおかむとすらん
natsu hatsuru ōgi to aki no shiratsuyu to izure ka mazu wa okamu to suran | With the end of summer My fan or the autumn’s Silver dewdrops Which will be the first To fall, I wonder! |
Mibu no Tadamine
This poem is also Wakan rōeishū 169.
On returning a fan to the same lady, around autumn.
秋はてぬいまは扇もかへしてむなを頼むかと人もこそみれ
aki Fatenu ima Fa aFugi mo kaFesitemu nawo tanomu ka to Fito mo koso mire |
Autumn’s longings are at an end, so Now, your fan I do return, lest Further entreaties to make I have – or so you’d think! |