A poem composed after the cremation of Cloistered Retired Emperor En’yū at Murasakino, when recalling how His Majesty had travelled there for the Day of the Rat the year before.
紫野雲のかけても思ひきや春の霞になして見むとは
murasaki no
kumo no kaketemo
omoFiki ya
Faru no kasumi ni
nasite mimu to Fa
At Murasakino
Clouds covering all
Did I recall?
The haze of spring
Have they become when I see them now…
Major Captain of the Left [Fujiwara no] Asamitsu
左大将[藤原]朝光
Fana no tiru koto ya wabisiki Farugasumi tatuta no yama no uguFisu no kowe
The falling of the flowers Is sad, indeed; In the spring haze On Tatsuta Mountain A warbler cries…
Fujiwara no Chikage
[1] It was taboo to record the personal names of noble women of high rank unless they were made empress. The Ninna 仁和 period began on the 11th day of the Third Month, 885, and lasted until the 30th day of the Fifth Month, 889. ‘Lady of the Bedchamber’ (miyasudokoro 御息所) was a title given to imperial consorts who had given birth to a prince, while ‘Middle Captain’ (chūjō 中将) was a military position in the palace guards. Contemporary readers would have been able to identify who the ‘Lady who had given birth to an imperial prince and whose father held the position of Middle Captain during the Ninna period’ was, but modern scholarship has not done so; nor have full records of this poetry competition survived.