[One of] two poems composed to express his grief and sorrow by Kawabe no Miyahito when he saw the coffin of a young girl in the pine groves of Himeshima in Wadō 4 [711].
妹之名者 千代尓将流 姫嶋之 子松之末尓 蘿生万代尓
いもがなは ちよにながれむ ひめしまの こまつがうれに こけむすまでに
| imo ga na pa tiyo ni nagaremu pimesima no komatu ga ure ni kokemusu made ni | This maiden’s name Will drift down a thousand ages Until Himeshima’s Pine seedling shoots are Choked with hanging moss. |
Kawabe no Miyahito
I stayed by the beach at Fukiage. The moon was fair in the extreme, and the beach was a place where it was said that heavenly beings would often descend to and make merry. Truly, it was a fair place, indeed! That night, the sky was heart-rendingly moving, and as the night wore on, the breeze, brushing fallen frost from the ducks’ wing-feathers, brought loneliness to the skies, while the distant cries of cranes, calling for their comrades, was so moving, my words fail to express it. Birds other than these flocked, calling from the sandbars and even my insensitive and unfeeling self was moved beyond measure.
をとめごが天の羽衣ひきつれてむべもふけ井の浦におるらん
| otomego ga ama no hagoromo hikitsurete mube mo fukehi no ura ni oruran | Heaven’s maidens’ Feathered robes, Drawn up by The gusts at Fukehi Beach when they rest there. |
