434 Tokugawa Period
Visitor on a late spring day
Kurehatsuru
Haru no yūbe no
Sabishiki ni
Kaeraba towanu
Hito ya masaramu
|
It were better not to call
Than to leave me in the loneliness
Of the late spring afternoon.
|
Ōkuma Kotomichi (1798–1868)
Translated by Yukuo Uyehara and Marjorie Sinclair
The silver mine
Akahada no
Danshi mureite
Aragane no
Marogari kudaku
Tsuchi uchifurite
|
Stark naked, the men
Stand together in clusters;
Swinging great hammers
They smash into fragments
The lumps of unwrought metal.
|
Solitary pleasures
Tanoshimi wa
Kami wo hirogete
Toru fude no
Omoi no hoka ni
Yoku kakeshi toki
|
It is a pleasure
When, spreading out some paper,
I take brush in hand
And write far more skilfully
Than I could have expected.
|
Tanoshimi wa
Momohi hineredo
Naranu uta no
Futo omoshiroku
Idekinuru toki
|
It is a pleasure
When, after a hundred days
Of twisting my words
Without success, suddenly
A poem turns out nicely.
|
Tanoshimi wa
Asa okiidete
Kinō made
Nakarishi hana no
Sakeru miru toki
|
It is a pleasure
When, rising in the morning
I go outside and
Find that a flower has bloomed
That was not there yesterday.
|
