On hearing a cicada singing
吹く風はすずしくもあるかおのづから山の蝉なきて秋はきにけり
| fuku kaze wa suzushiku mo aru ka onozukara yama no semi nakite aki wa kinikeri | Is it that the gusting breeze Is so cool? All alone A cicada in the mountain sings Autumn’s arrival. |
Tag Archives: semi
Kinkai wakashū 171
Kinkai wakashū 170
Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 57
Left
秋のせみさむき声にぞきこゆなる木のはの衣を風やぬぎつる
| aki no semi samuki koe ni zo kikoyunaru ko no ha no kinu o kaze ya nugitsuru | In the autumn, the cicadas’ Chill song I hear; Has the trees’ garb of leaves Been stripped from them by the wind? |
112[1]
Right
あきの夜の月の影こそ木の間よりおちてはきぬとみえわたりけれ
| aki no yo no tsuki no kage koso ko no ma yori ochite wa kinu to miewatarikere | On an autumn night The moon’s light, truly, From between the trees Does come a’falling Everywhere, it seems. |
113
[1] Shinsen man’yōshū 109/Fubokushō XIII: 5422
Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 38
Left
夏の月ひかりをしまず照る時はながるる水にかげろふぞたつ
| natsu no tsuki hikari o shimazu teru toki wa nagaruru mizu ni kagerō zo tatsu | When summer moon’s Light lightly Shines From the running waters Haze arises! |
74
Right
琴の音にひびきかよへる松風はしらべても鳴く蝉の声かな
| koto no ne ni hibikikayoeru matsukaze wa shirabetemo naku semi no koe kana | A zither’s strains Echoing back and forth: The wind through the pines, In tune with the cries In the cicadas’ song! |
75[1]
[1] Shinshūishū III: 303/Shinsen man’yōshū 73/Kokin rokujō I: 398/Fubokushō IX: 3584
Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 36
Left
なつの日のくるるもしらず鳴く蝉をとひもしてしか何ごとかうき
| natsu no hi no kururu mo shirazu naku semi o toi mo shiteshika nani goto ka uki | Of the summer sun’s Setting unaware are The singing cicadas: Had I but asked them of it, What would they despise? |
70
Right
あやめ草いくらの五月あひくらむ来る年毎にわかく見ゆらむ
| ayamegusa ikura no satsuki aikuramu kuru toshigoto ni wakaku miyuramu | O, sweet flags! In how many Fifth Months Have you come to meet me? With every turning year You seem younger to me! |
71
Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 30
Left
夏の日を暮らし侘びぬる蝉のまにわがなきそふるこゑはきこゆや[1]
| natsu no hi o kurashiwabinuru semi no ma ni wa ga nakisouru koe wa kikoyu ya | The summer sun They know not how to endure, So with the cicadas My sobbing Voice do you hear? |
59
Right
恨みつつとどむる人のなければや山時鳥うかれでてなく
| uramitsutsu todomuru hito no nakereba ya yama hototogisu ukaredete naku | How I constantly despise The one who’s staying here If he were gone, would The mountain cuckoo Have aimlessly left his home to sing? |
60
[1] The phrase semi no (‘the cicadas’) is missing from the text of the contest, but has been suggested by later scholarship.
Fubokushō XIII: 5422
A poem from the Poetry Contest held by the Dowager Empress during the Reign of the Kanpyō Emperor.
秋のせみさむき声にぞきこゆなる木のはの衣を風やぬぎつる
| aki no semi samuki koe ni zo kikoyunaru ko no ha no kinu o kaze ya nugitsuru | In the autumn, the cicadas’ Chill song I hear; Has the trees’ garb of leaves Been stripped from them by the wind? |
Anonymous
Uhyōe shōjō sadafumi uta’awase 3
SZS III: 137
Composed on the conception of changing into summer clothes, when a Hundred Poem Sequence was presented to His Majesty, Emperor Horikawa.
けふかふるせみの羽ごろもきてみればたもとに夏はたつにぞ有りける
| kyō kauru semi no hagoromo kitemireba tamoto ni natsu wa tatsu ni zo arikeru | With the change today, A robe of cicada wings I do put on and see Upon my sleeves that summer Has, indeed, arrived! |
Fujiwara no Mototoshi