Tag Archives: ito

Kinkai wakashū 256

Composed when I had instructed various people to compose on ‘In the autumn fields / Drop whitened dewdrops: / Can they be jewels’.[i]

ささがにの玉ぬくいとのををよわみ風にみだれて露ぞこぼるる

sasagani no
tama nuku ito no
o o yowami
kaze ni midarete
tsuyu zo koboruru
A tiny crab, the spider
Strings gems on her web,
Threads so fragile, that
Confused by the wind
The dewdrops scatter.

[i] A reference to: Composed at a poetry competition at Prince Koresada’s house. 秋ののにおくしらつゆは玉なれやつらぬきかくるくものいとすぢ  aki no no ni / oku shiratsuyu wa / tama nare ya / tsuranukikakuru / kumo no itosuji ‘In the autumn fields / Drop whitened dewdrops: / Can they be jewels, / Pierced through and strung / On spider webs?’ Fun’ya no Asayasu (KKS IV: 225). Sanetomo has used the initial part of the Kokinshū poem as the topic for composition.

SIS VIII: 449

When a large number of people had gone to Daikakuji and were composing on the old waterfall.

たきの糸はたえてひさしく成りぬれど名こそ流れて猶きこえけれ

taki no ito Fa
taete Fisasiku
narinuredo
na koso nagarete
naFo kikoekere
The cataract’s threads
Snapped so long
Ago, yet
Its name flows on and
Is yet heard.

Kintō, Captain of the Outer Palace Guards, Right Division

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

Teiji-in uta’awase 10

Left (Tie)

ふるさとにかすみとびわけゆくかりはたびのそらにやはるをすぐらむ

furusato ni
kasumi tobiwake
yuku kari wa
tabi no sora ni ya
haru o suguramu
Above an ancient estate
Flying through the parting haze
Go the geese:
In the skies they journey through,
I wonder, will they pass the springtime?

Mitsune

19

Right

ちるはなをぬきしとめねばあをやぎのいとはよるともかひやなからむ

chiru hana o
nukishi tomeneba
aoyagi no
ito wa yoru tomo
kai ya nakaramu
The scattered blossom
Has been pierced, but not stayed, so,
The green willow’s
Threaded fronds are spun together, yet
It useless seems…

20

‘“Sewn but not halted”—it really does seem so.’