hisakata no ama tobu kari no namida kamo ōarakino no sasa no ue no tsuyu
Eternal Heaven-flying goose Tears, perhaps? Upon Ōaraki Plain, Dew upon the dwarf-bamboo…[1]
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. なきわたるかりの涙やおちつらむ物思ふやどの萩のうへのつゆ nakiwataru / kari no namida ya / ochitsuran / mono’omou yado no / hagi no ue no tsuyu ‘Calling across / Did the geese let tears / Fall? / My dwelling, lost in thought, / Has dew upon the bush clover.’ Anonymous (KKS IV:221); and: 如是為而也 尚哉将老 三雪零 大荒木野之 小竹尓不有九二 kakushite ya / nao ya oinuramu / miyuki furu / ōarakino no / shino ni aranaku ni ‘Is this how it is to be? / Have I yet grown old / Though covered with fair snow / On Ōaraki Plain / An arrow-bamboo I am not…’ Anonymous (MYS VII: 1349).
It must have been around the twentieth day of the Second Month, I think, when I was alone and gazing at the sky one evening as the new greenery was emerging in the north, and I composed this on hearing a goose call.
ながめつつおもふもかなしかへるかりゆくらんかたの夕ぐれの空
nagametsutsu omou mo kanashi kaeru kari yukuran kata no yūgure no sora
Ever gazing, My thoughts are filled with sadness, as Returning geese Go out into The twilight skies.
kaze samumi ise no hama ogi wakeyukeba koromo kari ga ne nami ni naku nari
The wind’s so chill, as Through the silver grass upon the beach at Ise I forge my way, that I’d borrow a robe with goose cries Sounding ‘cross the waves!
