POETRY FROM SIX COLLECTIONS
95
- • •
Hi mo kurenu
Hito mo kaerinu
Yamazato wa
Mine no arashi no
Oto bakari shite
|
The day has ended
And the visitors have left—
In the mountain village
All that remains is the howl
Of the storm winds from the peak.
|
Minamoto no Yorizane
- • •
Yo wo komete
Tori no sorane wa
Hakaru to mo
Yo ni Ausaka no
Seki wa yurusaji
|
The night is still dark—
Even though you counterfeit
The morning cockcrows,
They will never let you through
Ausaka Barrier.[1]
|
Sei Shōnagon
TRANSLATED BY DONALD KEENE
[from the Kinyōshū, 1128]
Awaji shima
Kayou chidori no
Naku koe ni
Iku yo nezamenu
Suma no sekimori
|
Guardian of the gate
Of Suma, how many nights
Have you awakened
At the crying of the shore bird
Of the Isle of Awaji?
|
Minamoto no Kanemasa
TRANSLATED BY KENNETH REXROTH
- • •
Murakumo ya
Tsuki no kuma wo ba
Nogofuramu
Hareyuku tabi ni
Terimasaru kana
|
The clustering clouds—
Can it be they wipe away
The lunar shadows?
Every time they clear a bit
The moonlight shines the brighter.
|
Minamoto no Toshiyori
- ↑ Refers to a Chinese story of a man who got through a barrier by imitating a cock’s crowing and thus making the keeper of the barrier think that dawn had come—when the barrier was opened.
