Love and Deer.
あきののに朝霧がくれ鳴くしかのほのかにのみやききわたりなん
| aki no no ni asa kirigakure naku shika no honoka ni nomi ya kiki watarinan | In the autumn meadows Hidden by the morning mist Is that a stag’s bell Simply faintly I hear drifting across? |
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Tag Archives: meadows
Kinkai wakashū 531
Tōin senzai awase 09
Left – Rani
むしのねはまだおるとしもきこえぬをからにしきにもみゆる物かな
| mushi no ne wa mada oru to shimo kikoenu o karanishiki ni mo miyuru mono kana | The insects’ songs Yet weave and even though I hear them not As Cathay brocade Does all appear! |
15a
むしのねはまだおるとしもきこえぬをからにしきにもみゆるのべかな
| mushi no ne wa mada oru to shimo kikoenu o karanishiki ni mo miyuru nobe kana | The insects’ songs Yet weave and even though I hear them not As Cathay brocade Do the meadows appear! |
15b
Right
きる人をのべやしるらんふぢばかまいたづらにのみつゆのおきつつ
| kiru hito o nobe ya shiruran fujibakama itazura ni nomi tsuyu no okitsutsu | Folk wearing them Do the meadows know, perhaps? For upon these violet trousers In mischief alone Does the dew keep falling! |
16
Rani is a generic term for ‘orchid’ but in waka it was usually equated with eupatorium (a type of aster), which was also called fujibakama, the literal meaning of which was ‘wisteria [coloured] trousers’.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 05
Round Five
Left (T – Tie)
時雨には菅の小笠も水もりて遠の旅人ぬれやしぬらん
| shigure ni wa suga no ogasa mo mizu morite ochi no tabibito nure ya shinuran | In such a shower A little hat of woven sedge, too, Drips with water; A distant traveller Is drenched, no doubt… |
Lady Kazusa
9
Right (M – Win)
霜さえて枯行くをのの岡べなるならの朽葉にしぐれ降るなり
| shimo saete kareyuku ono no okabe naru nara no kuchiba ni shigure furu nari | Chill the frost upon The sere meadows on The hillside where Upon the withered oak leaves A shower is falling. |
Lord Mototoshi
10
Toshiyori states: In the first poem, ‘drips with water’ is vague. In the second poem, ‘hillside where’ lacks smoothness. What are we to make of ‘withered oak leaves’? If leaves have withered away, then they wouldn’t make any sound, would they. Is this even possible?
Mototoshi states: the diction of ‘In such a shower / A little umbrella of woven sedge, too, / Drips with water’ is something which lacks any prior precedent. ‘Dripping with water’ give the impression of a painted pot with a crack in it, so what kind of shower can this be? It would be more normal to refer to having to shelter beneath one’s sleeves. While it is lacking in any superlative features, I feel that the sound of a shower on withered oak leaves is somewhat more commonplace.
Yasuakira shinnō tachihaki no jin uta’awase 03
Maidenflowers
Left
あきかぜはふかずもあらなむをみなへししるもしらぬもおもふこころは
| akikaze wa fukazu mo aranamu ominaeshi shiru mo shiranu mo omou kokoro wa | Even should the autumn breeze Fail to blow, O, maidenflower, still Those who know you and know you not, Would hold you in their hearts… |
Taira no Yasū
5
Right (Win)
をみなへしおひたるのべにふきかかるあきののかぜにみをやそへまし
| ominaeshi oitaru nobe ni fukikakaru aki no nokaze ni mi o ya soemashi | Maidenflowers Growing in the meadows Brushed by the blowing Autumn wind o’er the fields— O, how I wish it trailed over me, too… |
Tomo no Tadanori
(or in some texts Toshizane)
6
Kinkai wakashū 301
Kinkai wakashū 255
Kinkai wakashū 209
Bush clover at the roadside.
みちのべのをのの夕霧たちかへりみてこそゆかめ秋はぎの花
| michi no be no ono no yūgiri tachikaeri mite koso yukame akihagi no hana | By the roadside Across the meadows evening mists Rise and fall endlessly; Thus would I go and see The autumn bush clover blooms.[1] |
[1] An allusive variation on: For a poetry competition held in the Tenryaku era. 春ふかみゐてのかは浪たちかへり見てこそゆかめ山吹の花 haru fukami / ide no kawanami / tachikaeri / mite koso yukame / yamabuki no hana ‘In the depths of spring / Waves on the river at Idé / Rise and fall endlessly; / Thus would I go and see / The kerria blooms…’ Minamoto no Shitagō (SIS I: 68).
Kinkai wakashū 203
Kyōgoku no miyasudokoro uta’awase 07
Original
わかなつむとしはへぬれどかすがのののもりはけふやはるをしるらむ
| wakana tsumu toshi wa henuredo kasugano no nomori wa kyō ya haru o shiruramu | Plucking fresh herbs do The years pass by, yet On Kasuga Plain, The wardens today Must truly know ‘tis spring. [1] |
Mitsune
19
Left (Tie)
けふ見てぞわれはしりぬるはなはなほかすがののべのものにぞありける
| kyō mite zo ware wa shirinuru hana wa nao kasuga no nobe no mono ni zo arikeru | Today did I see, and Understood it well, that Blossom, truly, Upon the meadows of Kasuga Is best of all. |
20
Right
ありへてもかすがののもりはるにあふはとしもわかなもつめるしるしか
| arihete mo kasuga no nomori haru ni au wa toshi mo wakana mo tsumeru shirushi ka | Over passing ages, For the wardens of Kasuga, Encountering the springtime, The years and the fresh herbs, both, Have garnered as a sign, perhaps. |
21
[1] A variant of this poem occurs in Shokugosenshū: In the twenty-first year of the same era, on a day when the Kyōgoku Lady of the Bedchamber visited the shrine at Kasuga, he composed this in place of the official from the province of Yamato. としごとにわかなつみつつかすが野ののもりもけふやはるをしるらん toshi goto ni / wakana tsumitsutsu / kasugano no / nomori mo kyō ya / haru o shiruran ‘Every single year / Ever plucking fresh herbs / On Kasuga Plain / The wardens, too, today / Must truly know ‘tis spring.’Mitsune (XVI: 1032/1029)