At a time when she was living with relatives, and the bush-clover was blooming particularly beautifully, the master of the house was somewhere else and not communicating, so she sent this to him.
白露も心おきてや思ふらむぬしもたづねぬやどの秋はぎ
| siratuyu mo kokoro okite ya omoFuramu nusi mo tasunenu yado no aki Fagi |
Silver dewdrops Also fall on their hearts I feel; As the master pays no call On his dwelling’s autumn bush-clover. |
Chikuzen Wet Nurse
筑前乳母
Composed for a folding screen of the twelve months, during the Engi period.
夏はつる扇と秋の白露といづれかまづはおかむとすらん
| natsu hatsuru ōgi to aki no shiratsuyu to izure ka mazu wa okamu to suran | With the end of summer My fan or the autumn’s Silver dewdrops Which will be the first To fall, I wonder! |
Mibu no Tadamine
This poem is also Wakan rōeishū 169.
Left.
祝ひ置きてなを長月と契かな今日摘む菊の末の白露
| iwaiokite nao nagatsuki to chigiri kana kyō tsumu kiku no sue no shiratsuyu |
Celebrating: To have yet more long life, Is the vow, with White dewdrops from the tips Of today’s plucked chrysanthemums… |
451
Right (Win).
君が經ん代を長月のかざしとて今日折り得たる白菊の花
| kimi ga hen yo o nagatsuki no kazashi tote kyō orietaru shiragiku no hana |
That my Lord will pass through Ages more, for the Longest Month Our garland will be Picked on this very day, White chrysanthemum blooms! |
452
Neither team can find any fault with the other’s poem this round.
Shunzei’s judgement: The Left’s poem is excellent in both diction and overall configuration [sugata kotoba yū narubeshi]. Although the Right’s fine phrase [shūku] ‘picked on this very day’ (kyō orietaru) is somewhat archaic [koto furite] and I am unable to appreciate it, the Left’s poem, however, sounds as if it were a poem praying for one’s own long life. The Right, though, celebrates for one’s Lord, and so must win.
Composed for a scene of the Chrysanthemum Festival for a folding screen on the occasion of the coming of age ceremony of the Sanjō Empress.
我が宿の菊の白露今日ごとに幾世積もりて淵となる覧
| wa ga yado no kiku no siratuyu keFu goto ni iku yo tumorite Futi to naruran |
At my house White dewdrops on the chrysanthemums: Today, above all, I would the ages pile upon each other And become a deep, deep pool! |
Motosuke.