Composed on the conception of the moon by the sea.
眺めやる心の果てぞなかりける明石の沖に澄める月影
nagameyaru
kokoro no Fate zo
nakarikeru
akasi no oki ni
sumeru tsukikage |
Gazing out
I find my heart’s last hope
Is not gone;
Above the offing at Akashi bright and
Clear is the moonlight. |
Shun’e
俊恵
沖行くや赤ら小舟につと遣らばけだし人見て開き見むかも
oki yuku ya
akara obune ni
tuto yaraba
kedasi pito mite
akimimu kamo |
Heading out into the offing
On a scarlet official ship
If I send a parcel
Would he find it, and
Try opening it, I wonder? |
沖つ鳥鴨といふ船は也良の崎廻みて漕ぎ来と聞こえ来ぬかも
oki tu tori
kamo to ipu pune wa
yara no saki
tamite kogiku to
kikoekonu kamo | As a bird upon the offing,
The boat named Duck:
Round Yara Point
Has come a’rowing –
Won’t someone come to hear… |
Ten poems about a fisherman from Shika in Chikuzen Province.
大君の遣はさなくにさかしらに行きし荒雄ら沖に袖振る
opokimi no
tukapasaku ni
sakasira ni
yukisi arawora
oki ni sode puru |
His dread Lord’s
Command he has not, but
For himself
Arao has gone
Waving his sleeves from the offing… |
霞しく門司の関地を見渡せば薄澄みわたる沖つ白波
kasumishiku
moji no sekichi o
miwataseba
ususumiwataru
oki tsu shiranami |
Hazy
Is the barrier ground at Moji:
When I gaze across,
Only just in sight are
The whitecaps in the offing. |
Jakuren
潮風に与謝の浦松音ふけて月影よする沖つ白波
shiokaze ni
yosa no ura matsu
oto fukete
tsukikage yosuru
oki tsu shiranami |
The tidewinds
On the pines at Yosa shore
Die down
With the roll of moonlight
Over the whitecaps in the offing. |
Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
藤原良経
Composed on evening haze.
なごの海の霞のまよりながむれば入る日をあらふ沖つ白波
nago no umi no
kasumi no ma yori
nagamureba
iru hi o arau
oki tsu shiranami |
At the sea at Nago
Between the hazy gaps
I gaze:
Bathed by the setting sun
Are the whitecaps in the offing. |
The Gotokudaiji Minister of the Left
後徳大寺左大臣
[Fujiwara no Sanesada 藤原実定]
A poem composed when Senior Clerk Hata no Imiki presented a farewell banquet to Governor Ōtomo, Lord Yakamochi at the Yachishima residence.
奈呉の海の沖つ白波しくしくに思ほえむかも立ち別れなば
nago no umi no
oki tu siranami
sikusiku ni
omopoemu ka mo
tatiwakarenaba |
At the sea of Nago
The whitecaps in the offing
So clearly
Would I remember
When I am gone from here… |
Ōtomo no Yakamochi
大伴家持
同じ世に又住の江の月や見む今日こそよその隠岐つ嶋守
onaji yo ni
mata suminoe no
tsuki ya mimu
kyô koso yoso no
oki tsu shimamori |
In this same world
Can yet above Suminoe
The moon be seen?
For today the distant
Isle of Oki’s warder have I become.. |
我こそは新嶋守よ隠岐の海のあらき浪風心して吹け
ware koso wa
niishimamori yo
oki no umi no
araki nami kaze
kokoroshite fuke |
I am to be
The new warden of this isle!
Upon the seas around Oki,
O, wild winds,
Blow with care! |
'Simply moving and elegant'
