Tag Archives: mountains

Kinkai wakashū 1

Spring

Composed on the First day of the First Month

今朝みれば山もかすみて久かたのあまのはらより春は来にけり

kesa mireba
yama mo kasumite
hisakata no
ama no hara yori
haru wa kinikeri
Gazing out this morning
The mountains are all hazed
From the eternal
Plains of Heaven[i]
Spring has come, at last!

1

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

[i] The reference to the ‘plains of Heaven’ (ama no hara 天の原) being ‘eternal’ (hisakata 久方) implies that the poet has been long awaiting the arrival of spring—a nuance which I have attempted to capture with the final ‘at last’.

Teiji-in uta’awase 32

Left

ひとこふとはかなきしにをわれやせんみのあらばこそのちもあひみめ

hito kou to
hakanaki shini o
ware ya sen
mi no araba koso
nochi mo aimime
Loving her was
Brief, so is die
What I should do?
If I live on then
I might meet her later!

64

Right

ゆふさればやまのはにいづるつきくさのうつしごころはきみにそめてき

yū sareba
yama no ha ni izuru
tsukikusa no
utsushigokoro wa
kimi ni someteki
When the evening comes
From the mountains’ edge emerges
Moongrass—just as
My loving heart has
Been dyed by you.

65

Teiji-in uta’awase 21

Summer

Five poems on the Fourth Month

Left (Win)

みやまいでてまづはつこゑはほととぎすよぶかくまたむわがやどになけ

miyama idete
mazu hatsukoe wa
hototogisu
yobu kaku matamu
wa ga yado ni nake
Emerging from the mountains deep,
Early, your first call,
Cuckoo—
Where I would be waiting all night long
At my house, o, sing out!

Masakata[i]

41

Right

けふよりはなつのころもになりぬれどきるひとさへはかはらざりけり

kyō yori wa
natsu no koromo ni
narinuredo
kiru hito sae wa
kawarazarikeri
From today
Summer garb
We have put on, yet
The folk who wear it
Have not changed at all.

Mitsune
42

‘The Right is uninteresting,’ so it lost.


[i] Minamoto no Masakata 源雅固 (dates unknown). A son of Minamoto no Sada’ari 源定有 (dates unknown), one of the sons of Emperor Montoku (827-858; r. 850-858).

Hon’in sadaijin-ke uta’awase 10

Evergreens

ちりかはる心なけれどみやまぎのときはは秋もしられざりけり

chirikawaru
kokoro nakeredo
miyamagi no
tokiwa wa aki mo
shirarezarikeri
A flighty
Heart, has it not, yet
Deep within the mountains, that the trees
Are evergreen, even the autumn
Seems not to know…

19

Gentian

した草の花をみつればむらさきに秋さへふかくなりにけるかな

shitagusa no
hana o mitsureba
murasaki ni
aki sae fukaku
narinikeru kana
When in the undergrowth
Flowers I do see, their
Violet in
Autum much deeper
Has become!

20

Hon’in sadaijin-ke uta’awase 01

Topics

Pinks  Silver grassKarukayaMaidenflowers
Orchids  Bush cloverMarlberryScarlet leaves
BambooAstersEvergreensGentian

Poetry Match    

Pinks

Left

あきののの花はさきつつうつろへどいつともわかぬやどのとこ夏

aki no no no
hana wa sakitsutsu
utsuroedo
itsu to mo wakanu
yado no tokonatsu
In the autumn meadows,
The flowers ever bloom, then
Fade away, yet
Never will that happen to
The pink where I do dwell…

1

Right

秋ののをみるよりも又あしひきの山となでしこさきにけるかな

aki no no o
miru yori mo mata
ashihiki no
yamato nadeshiko
sakinikeru kana
Upon the autumn meadows
I gaze—but better yet that
In the leg-wearying
Mountains of Yamato a pink
Has bloomed!

2

Sahyōe no suke sadafumi uta’awase 15

Left

おとはやまおとにききつつあふさかのせきのこなたにひとをまつかな

otowayama
oto ni kikitsutsu
ausaka no
seki no konata ni
hito o matsu kana
As wing-beats in the mountains
Do I hear tell:
That on Meeting Hill
Barrier’s inner side
Someone does await me!

Motokata
29

Right

そのはらやふせやにおふるははきぎのありとてゆけどあはぬきみかな

sonohara ya
fuseya ni ouru
hahakigi no
ari tote yukedo
awanu kimi kana
At Sonohara
By the rest-stop grows
A sacred tree, they say;
I catch a glimpse, yet
Cannot meet with you!

30

Sagyokushū II: 325-326

Round 8

Left

花の色はかすみのひまにほのみえて山のはにほふ春の暁

hana no iro wa
kasumi no hima ni
honomiete
yama no ha niou
haru no akebono
The blossoms’ hues
Between the shifting haze
I briefly glimpse, and
The mountains’ edges glow
With the dawn in springtime.

325

Right

あだし夜の花にとききてゆく雁の名残もいとど有明のそら

adashiyo no
hana ni toki kite
yuku kari no
nagori mo itdodo
ariake no sora
To fleeting night’s
Blossoms has the time come, and
The departing geese leave
A keepsake more brief
In the skies at dawn.

326

This round, again, it seems difficult to distinguish between the the two poems.

Former Emperor Gosukō (1372-1456)
後崇光院