On seeing cherry blossom blooming
やどにあるさくらの花は咲きにけり千とせの春もつねかくしみん
yado ni aru sakura no hana wa sakinikeri chitose no haru mo tsune kaku shi min At my house The cherry blossom Has bloomed— Over a thousand years of springtimes I would I could behold it thus!
670
おもかげに色のみのこる桜花いく世の春をこひむとすらん
omokage ni iro nomi nokoru sakurabana ikuyo no haru wo koFimu to suran Of her face Only your hue remains, O, cherry blossom— For how many ages’ springtimes Will I yearn for her so?
Taira no Kanemori
Original
こまなべてきみがみにくるかすがのはまつかさしげしあめにさはるな
koma nabete kimi ga mi ni kuru kasugano wa matsukasa shigeshi ame ni sawaru na Mounts aligned, My Lord has come to see Kasuga Plain, where The plentiful pinecones mean He’ll be untroubled by rain!
43
Left (Win)
ぬれつつもあめにはゆかむまつかさのちとせのはるをもらさざらなむ
nuretsutsu mo ame ni wa yukamu matsukasa no chitose no haru o morasazaranamu Even dampened By the rain, let us go! For the pinecones Over a thousand years of springtimes Will surely not allow a single drip!
44[1]
Right
かすがののまつかさだにもなかりせばあめふるさとにわれこましやは
kasugano no matsukasa dani mo nakariseba ame furu sato ni ware komashi ya wa If on Kasuga Plain Even pinecones Were there not, then, To the rainswept ancient capital Why would I come at all?
45
[1] This poem is included in Ise-shū (107) with the headnote ‘From the time of the Kasuga Poetry Match’, implying that this is Ise’s work, even if she is not identified as the poet in the text here.
Original
かすがののけふのみゆきをまつばらのちとせのはるはきみがまにまに
kasugano no kyō no miyuki o matsubara no chitose no haru wa kimi ga manimani On Kasuga Plain Today’s progress Awaited have the pine groves, A thousand years of springtimes, Just as my Lady’s thoughts. [1]
Mitsune 31
Left
ゆくさきのはるをとほくしまかすればいまはちとせのうたがひもなし
yukusaki no haru o tōkushi makasureba ima wa chitose no utagai mo nashi Future Springtimes to distant times May we entrust, for Now that she will live a thousand years more There is no doubt, at all.
32
Right (Win)
むれたちてわれをまつてふかすがののみどりふかくやおもひそめけむ
muretachite ware o matsu chō kasugano no midori fukaku ya omoisomekemu Growing crowded together, and Awaiting me are the pines On Kasuga Plain— Why should their green so deeply Seem to think of me?
33
[1] A minor variant of this poem occurs in Mitsune-shū (325) with the same headnote as for poem (22), above.
'Simply moving and elegant'