Tag Archives: plum blossom

Teiji-in uta’awase 03

Left (Win)

きつつのみなくうぐひすのふるさとはちりにしむめのはなにざりける

kitsutsu nomi
naku uguisu no
furusato wa
chirinishi mume no
hana ni zarikeru
Ever coming, simply
To sing—the warbler’s
Ancient home
The scattered plum
Blossoms is not.

Mitsune

5[i]

Right

みちよへてなるてふももはことしよりはなさくはるにあひぞしにける

michiyo hete
naru chō momo wa
kotoshi yori
hana saku haru ni
ai zo shinikeru
Three thousand generations enduring,
They say, are the peaches:
From this year
Blossom blooming spring
Have they encountered.

Korenori

6[ii]

This poem says ‘generation’ when it should be composed about a year—it loses.


[i] This poem is included in Shinchokusenshū (I: 36), attributed to Sakanoue no Korenori, with the headnote, ‘From Former Emperor Uda’s Poetry Contest’.

[ii] A minor variant of this poem, which changes the first phrase to ‘For three thousand years’ (michi tose ni), is included in Shūishū (V: 288), attributed to Mitsune, with the headnote ‘From Former Emperor Uda’s Poetry Contest’.

GSS I: 38

He had paid a visit to the house of an acquaintance where there was a plum tree. ‘When it blooms, I will certainly invite you to come,’ he was told, but when no letter arrived…

梅花今は盛りになりぬらんたのめし人のをとづれもせぬ

mume no Fana
ima Fa sakarini
narinuran
tanomesi Fito no
wotodure mo senu
The plum blossom
Is now profusely
Blooming, it seems, but
From the man I trusted
Comes no note, at all…

The Suzakuin Prince and Minister for War [Atsukata/Atsumoto]

Sahyōe no suke sadafumi uta’awase 1

Left

Mibu no TadamineAriwara no MotokataTaira no Sadafun

Right

Sakanoue no KorenoriKi no TsurayukiŌshikōchi no Mitsune

The Beginning of Spring

Left (Tie)

はるたつといふばかりにやみよしののやまもかすみてけさはみゆらむ

haru tatsu to
iu bakari ni ya
miyoshino no
yama mo kasumite
kesa wa miyuramu
Spring is here
They simply say, but
Is fair Yoshino
Mountain, too, all hazed
In view this morning, I wonder?

Tadamine
1

Right

はるたちてなほふるゆきはむめのはなさくほどもなくちるかとぞみる

haru tachite
nao furu yuki wa
mume no hana
saku hodo mo naku
chiru ka to zo miru
Spring is here, yet
Still the snow falls—does, as
Plum blossoms’
Brief flowering then
Scattering, it truly seem?

Mitsune
2

Genzon waka rokujō 607

Bird cherry.

ゆきふかきかきねのむめのいかにしてなほうづもれぬかにはさくら

yuki fukaki
kakine no mume no
ika ni shite
nao uzumorenu
ka ni wa sakuran
Deep with the snow is
The plum blossom by my brushwood fence:
O, what will become of it—
Still buried
Will its fragrance bloom forth?

The Former Kinugasa Minister of the Centre [Kinugasa no Ieyoshi 衣笠家良 (1192-1264)]
衣笠前内大臣

Tsurayuki-shū 358

Poems composed for a folding screen for the Minister of the Right in Jōhei 7 [937]: Women gazing at the scarlet plum blossom they had picked beneath the trees.

雪とのみあやまたれつつ梅花くれなゐにさへかよひけるかな

yuki to nomi
aya mataretsutsu
mume no hana
kurenai ni sae
kayoikeru kana
For the snow alone,
O, have we ever waited, while
The plum blossom
Simply in scarlet
Has scattered back and forth.

MYS V: 839

波流能努尓 紀理多知和多利 布流由岐得 比得能美流麻提 烏梅能波奈知流

春の野に霧立ちわたり降る雪と人の見るまで梅の花散る

paru no no ni
kiri tatiwatari
puru yuki to
pito no miru made
ume no pana tiru
In the springtime meadows
Filled with spreading mist,
As falling snow
To folk’s eyes appears
The scattering plum blossom.

Denshi no Makami, Clerk of Chikuzen
筑前目田氏真上