On winter rain, from a hundred poem sequence on the four seasons, composed in Jōkyū 2 [1220].
都人ちぎりしものをはつ雪に松の葉をしき夕暮の雨
| miyakobito chigirishi mono o hatsuyuki ni matsu no ha o shiki yūgure no ame | Capital folk Did make a vow: Upon the first snows Pine needles spread By the evening rain. |
Lord Ietaka, Junior Second Rank
On the cold wind.
木がらしのおとはすぎにし時なれどときはにつねに松にふく風
| kogarashi no oto wa suginishi toki naredo tokiwa ni tsune ni matsu ni fuku kaze | The biting wind’s Howl has passed And yet, The evergreens always Pine for the gusting breeze. |
Anonymous
Pine seedlings on the Day of the Rat (子日小松)
Left
ねの日する松の葉ごとにかぞふれば猶ぞつきせぬきみが千とせは
| ne no hi suru matsu no ha goto ni kazoureba nao zo tsukisenu kimi ga chitose wa | On this Day of the Rat Every single pine needle I count, but Still the number would not exhaust The millennia of my Lord… |
A Court Lady
1
Right
はるかなる君がよはひにくらべむと子日の松をけふは引くかな
| harukanaru kimi ga yowai ni kurabemu to ne no hi no matsu o kyō wa hiku kana | Distant is My Lord’s age: To what might it compare? Why The Rat Day pines that We pick today! |
A Court Lady
2
The Seventh Night 七夜
ちとせふる祝の松のつるの子はけふすをたちて七夜なりけり
| chitose furu iwai no matsu no tsuru no ko wa kyō su o tachite nanayo narikeri | Ageing for a thousand years, A celebratory pine is where A crane chick has Today made her nest and Reached her seventh night. |
Higo
The Seventh Night 七夜
たけならぬ二葉の松のおひ初めてこよひ七夜になりにけるかな
| take naranu futaba no matsu no oisomete koyoi nanayo ni narinikeru kana | A tiny New-leafed pine Begins to age From this seventh night that It has reached! |
Tadafusa
Groves 原
枝ごとにいくそのちよをちぎるらんその神世よりいきの松源
| eda goto ni iku sono chiyo o chigiruran sono kamiyo yori iki no matsubara | In every single branch Does live the thousand-generation Vow, perhaps? Enduring since the Age of Gods, The sacred pine groves of Iki. |
Higo
Love Waiting for Someone 待人恋
いつとなくこぬみの浜の人まつとただよふなみのたえぬ日ぞなき
| itsu to naku konu mi no hama no hito matsu to tadayou nami no taenu hi zo naki | Never does He come; on the beach A lone pine stands with The drifting waves Endless days – are there none! |
Toshiyori
When he had gone to the province of Michinoku as its governor, he saw a withered pine tree at Takekuma, and had a sapling planted to replace it; after finishing his posting, he returned to the same province later, and saw the pine he had planted once more.
栽し時契やし剣武隈の松をふたたび逢ひ見つる哉
| uesi toki tigiri ya si ken takekuma no matu wo Futatabi aFimituru kana | When I planted you Did I make a vow, perhaps? That Takekuma’s Pine once more I would encounter! |
Fujiwara no Motoyoshi
藤原元善
A poem on a pine tree in Shigeoka in Atomi, by Ki no Shikahito
茂岡に神さび立ちて栄えたる千代松の木の年の知らなく
| sigewoka ni kamusabi tatite sakaetaru tiyo matu no ki no tosi no siranaku | In Shigeoka Divinely stands Flourishing A pine for a thousand generations All unknowing of the passing years. |
Ki no Shikahito
紀鹿人
Left (Tie)
昔聞く君が手馴れの琴ならば夢に知られて音をも立てまし
| mukashi kiku kimi ga tenare no koto naraba yume ni shirarete ne o mo tatemashi |
Long ago, I heard Your favourite Zither play – if that were me, then In your dreams I would be known, and Make a sound most sweet within your sleep… |
Lord Sada’ie
1093
Right
わぎも子が心のひかぬ琴の音は我まつにこそ通はざりけれ
| wagimoko ga kokoro no hikanu koto no ne wa wa ga matsu ni koso kayowazarikere |
My darling’s Heartstrings are not tugged By my zither’s strains, so Though I pine for her ‘Tis of no use at all… |
The Supernumerary Master of the Empress’ Household Office
1094
The Right state: the Left’s poem gives the impression of being based on something – but what? The Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults to mention.
In judgement: there is nothing unusual about the Left’s poem. It simply seems to be in the conception of the Man’yōshū poem where, ‘a Japanese zither made from the wood of the parasol tree transforms into a maiden in a dream, and says “When will / The day come that / I shall sing / Making his lap / My pillow?”’ I also have the feeling that it is alluding to the subsequent poem, however. So, it is certainly not the case that it is not based on anything. The Right’s poem has ‘heartstrings are not tugged’ (kokoro no hikanu) and then the metaphorical ‘though I pine for her’ (wa ga matsu ni koso), so is certainly not lacking in conception either. They are equivalent and tie.