Tag Archives: nadeshiko

Kinkai wakashū 166

Pinks

ゆかしくば行きてもみませゆきしまの岩ほにおふる撫子の花

yukashikuba
yukitemo mimase
yukishima no
iwao ni ouru
nadeshiko no hana
If you find them charming, then
You should go and see
While snow lies heavy on the garden’s
Rock where grow
The pinks in bloom.[i]
A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.

[i] An allusive variation on: A poem by Kamō, the dancing girl. 雪嶋 巌尓殖有 奈泥之故波 千世尓開奴可 君之挿頭尓 yuki no shima / iwao ni uetaru / nadeshiko wa / chiyo ni sakanu ka / kimi ga Kazashi ni ‘Snow lies heavy on the garden’s / Rocks where grow / The pinks: / o. won’t you bloom a thousand years? / That my Lord may wear you in his hair…’ (MYS XIX: 4232).

MYS XIX: 4232

A poem by Kamō, the dancing girl.

雪嶋 巌尓殖有 奈泥之故波 千世尓開奴可 君之挿頭

ゆきのしま いはほにうゑたる なでしこは ちよにさかぬか きみがかざしに

yuki no sima
ipapo ni uwetaru
nadesiko pa
tiyo ni sakanu ka
kimi ga kazasi ni
Snow lies heavy on the garden’s
Rocks where grow
The pinks:
O, won’t you bloom a thousand years?
That my Lord may wear you in his hair…

Ise-shū 348

From the Master of the Right Capital Office, when the pinks were blooming in profusion.

我がそでにうつらばうつれてもやまずつみやいれましなでしこのはな

wa ga sode ni
utsuraba utsure
te mo yamazu
tsumi ya iremashi
nadeshiko no hana
If, to my sleeves
It is to shift, then let it!
My hand will not cease
To pick and I would tuck within
A flowering pink!

Minamoto no Muneyuki

Fubokushō IX: 3430

From the poetry contest in 1500 rounds.

見ぬ人をまつの木かげの苔むしろ猶敷島ややまとなでしこ

minu hito o
matsu no kokage no
kokemushiro
nao shikishima ya
yamato nadeshiko
For a man unseen
She pines in the shadow of the trees
On a mossy bed for
Her coverlet, the isles that make
Yamato – a pink!

Kūnaikyō, in service to Former Emperor Gotoba

MYS VIII: 1538

[One of] two poems composed by Yamanoue no Okura listing the flowers of the autumn fields.

芽之花 乎花葛花 瞿麦之花 姫部志 又藤袴 朝皃之花

萩の花尾花葛花なでしこの花をみなへしまた藤袴朝顔の花

pagi no pana
wobana kudupana
nadesiko no pana
wominapesi
mata pudibakama
asagapo no pana
Bush clover blooms,
Silver grass and kudzu,
Pinks,
Valerian
And fujibakama,
Morning glory blooms.

Yamanoue no Okura
山上憶良

Kei’un Hyakushu 30

Pinks.

いつしかと起きうからでもみゆるかな咲くやあしたの床夏の花

itsushika to
okiukarademo
miyuru kana
saku ya ashita no
tokonatsu no hana
Eagerly to
Rise is hard, indeed, yet
Might I catch a glimpse
Do you flower with the sunup
O pink blossoms?

Kei’un incorporates a play-on-words into his allusion, between asita no toko 朝の床 ‘bed at sunup’ in Sosei’s poem, and ashita no tokonatsu 朝の床夏 ‘pinks at sunup’ in his own.