[i] This poem is included in Gyokuyōshū (V: 794/795) with the headnote, ‘For the scarlet leaves match during the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’.
[ii] This poem is included in Gyokuyōshū (V: 795/796) with the headnote, ‘For the scarlet leaves match during the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’. It is also included in Mandaishū (V: 1223) with the headnote, ‘A poem from the autumn leaves match held at the palace in the intercalary Ninth Month, Tenryaku 9’ and in Kiyotada-shū (38), with the headnote ‘From an autumn leaves match at the palace, in a year when there were two ninth months’.
Composed after I had met Dharma Eye Teinin,[i] and heard him tell the tale of Ōmine[ii] among other things.
おくやまの苔のころもに置く露は涙の雨のしづくなりけり
okuyama no koke no koromo ni oku tsuyu wa namida no ame no shizuku narikeri
Deep within the mountains Upon his robe of moss The falling dewdrops are A rain of tear Droplets.
613
[i] Teinin 定忍 has not been identified, but from the context here, he must have been a yamabushi 山伏, an itinerant Buddhist monk and practitioner of shugendō.
[ii] Ōmine 大峰 was a mountain in Yoshino in Yamato which was a major location for practitioners of the ascetic Buddhist practice of shugendō 修験道, which involved, among other things, ascending the mountain to increase one’s spiritual power.
I sent this in parting to a court lady who had served me closely, when she said she was going to a distant province.
山とほみ雲ゐにかりのこえていなば我のみひとりねにやなかなん
yama tōmi kumoi ni kari no koeteinaba ware nomi hitori ne ni ya nakanan
Distant the mountains, where Within the clouds, the geese Pass over—should you, too, then Will I, alone, simply Be left to sob out my cries?[i]
604
[i] See: 朝霞 蒙山乎 越而去者 吾波将恋奈 至于相日 asagasumi / tanabiku yama o / koete’inaba / are wa koimu na / awamu hi made ni ‘The morning haze / Trailed mountains / Should you pass beyond, then / Will I ever yearn for you / Until the day we meet once more…’ (Man’yōshū XII: 3188)
When I was awake and gazing out at the dawn, the mists arose extremely densely all around, and all I could do was heartfeltly say this, thinking that I should be able to see the sky.
からにしき染むる山には立田姫きりのまくをぞ引きまはしたる
karanishiki somuru yama ni wa tatsuta-hime kirimaku o zo hikimawashitaru
Cathay brocade Dyed are the mountains where Princess Tatsuta The mists for her curtain Has drawn around.
Former Emperor Yōzei, on the 15th day of the Ninth Month, when it fell upon the day of Elder Brother-Metal Monkey, held a poetry match of the Left and Right with his eldest son’s daughters, the First Princess and the Second Princess, as the leaders of the two teams, composing poems in response to prior poems on the conception of the end of autumn.
Original
つきかげのやましたまでにさやけきはよるももみぢのいろをみよとや
tsukikage no yamashita made ni sayakeki wa yoru mo momiji no iro o miyo to ya
The moonlight To the mountains’ foot Is clear, so At night, too, the scarlet leaves’ Hues behold—I wonder if they say!
1
Left
もみぢせぬあきのやまべのあらばこそつきのひかりをたづねてもみめ
momiji senu aki no yamabe no araba koso tsuki no hikari o tazunete mo miyu
Should scarlet leaves be not Upon the autumn mountainside Then, surely, still The moon’s light Would I visit to see.
