A poem composed when deep in melancholy thought.
打つ田には稗はしあまたありといへど選えし我れぞ夜をひとり寝る
utu ta ni pa
pie pa si amata
ari to ipedo
eraesi ware zo
yo wo pitori nuru | Out in the paddies
Barnyard millet is there plenty
They do say, yet
I, singled out for dessertion
Do spend my nights sleeping alone. |
Hie
Love on Sight
比叡の山その大嶽は隠れねど猶水のみは流れてぞ降る
Fie no yama
sono oFotake Fa
kakurene to
naFo midu nomi Fa
nagarete zo Furu |
Hie Mountain:
Its mighty peak
Is not concealed, and yet,
And yet, waters alone
Flow ever downwards… |
Minamoto no Toshiyori
源俊頼
On climbing a tower belonging to someone by the water’s edge at the end of the Fifth Month.
海ははれてひえふりのこす五月哉
umi wa harete
hie furinokosu
satsuki kana |
The waters are calm now, but
Rain still falls on Hie–
‘Tis the Fifth Month, indeed. |
(1688)
A New Year’s Day poem, composed on the Hie shrine.
さゞなみやしがのはまゝつふりにけりたがよにひけるねの日なるらん
sazanami ya
shiga no hamamatsu
furinikeri
ta ga yo ni hikeru
ne no hi naruran |
Where the wavelets strike
On Shiga beach the pine trees
Have grown old;
Whose reign might have seen you plucked
On a new year’s day, I wonder. |
Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office Toshinari
藤原俊成
'Simply moving and elegant'
