Tag Archives: sode

Ise-shū 348

From the Master of the Right Capital Office, when the pinks were blooming in profusion.

我がそでにうつらばうつれてもやまずつみやいれましなでしこのはな

wa ga sode ni
utsuraba utsure
te mo yamazu
tsumi ya iremashi
nadeshiko no hana
If, to my sleeves
It is to shift, then let it!
My hand will not cease
To pick and I would tuck within
A flowering pink!

Minamoto no Muneyuki

Teishi-in ominaeshi uta’awase 25

やをとめのそでかとぞみるをみなへしきみをいはひてなではじめてき

yaotome no
sode ka to zo miru
ominaeshi
kimi o iwaite
nadehajimeteki
As eight sacred maidens’
Sleeves do they appear,
The maidenflowers,
Celebrating our Lord’s reign
With a first gentle touch.

49

うゑながらかつはたのまずをみなへしうつろふあきのほどしなければ

uenagara
katsu wa tanomazu
ominaeshi
utsurou aki no
hodo shi nakereba
I planted them, yet
Still unreliable are
The maidenflowers, for
They fade and autumn
Is nothing but brief…

50

Teishi-in ominaeshi uta’awase 07

Left

ひとのみることやくるしきをみなへしあきぎりにのみたちかくるらむ

hito no miru
koto ya kurushiki
ominaeshi
akigiri ni nomi
tachikakururamu
For man to gaze on you,
Is it so painful,
O, Maidenflower,
That simply in the autumn mists
You must hide yourself away?

Tadamine
13[1]

Right

とりてみばはかなからんやをみなへしそでにつつめるしらつゆのたま

torite miba
hakanakaran ya
ominaeshi
sode ni tsutsumeru
shiratsuyu no tama
If I pick and look
How fleeting are
Upon a maidenflower,
Enveloped in my sleeves
Silver dewdrop pearls.

14


[1] KKS IV: 235

Teishi-in ominaeshi uta’awase 02

Left

あきののをみなへしるともささわけにぬれにしそでやはなとみゆらむ

aki no no o
mina heshiru to mo
sasa wake ni
nurenishi sode ya
hana to miyuramu
Through the autumn meadows
Everyone knows to pass, yet
Forging through the dwarf bamboo
Will my sleeves, so drenched,
Appear as the flowers do?[1]

3

Right

をみなへしあきののかぜにうちなびきこころひとつをたれによすらん

ominaeshi
aki no nokaze ni
uchinabiki
kokoro hitotsu o
tare ni yosuran
The maidenflower,
With a breeze across the autumn fields,
Waves back and forth;
Having but a single heart,
To whom does she incline, I wonder?

The Minister of the Left[2]
4[3]


[1] This poem is an acrostic, where the syllables of the word ‘maidenflower’ (ominaeshi) are included as part of other words in the poem. It is thus understood that the final reference to ‘flowers’ (hana 花) is to these.

[2] Fujiwara no Tokihira 藤原時平 (871-909).

[3] Kokinshū IV: 230; Shinsen man’yōshū 532; Kokin rokujō 3660

MYS I: 20

A poem composed by Princess Nukata when the emperor went hunting at Kamōno.

茜草指 武良前野逝 標野行 野守者不見哉 君之袖布流

あかねさす紫野行き標野行き野守は見ずや君が袖振る

akane sasu
murasakino yuki
simeno yuki
nomori pa mizu ya
kimi ga sode puru
Shining madder red,
To the violet fields you go,
To the hunting grounds you go, but
Won’t the wardens look askance?
At your waving sleeves…’

Princess Nukata