Jakuren: The First Day of Winter
Posted: December 22, 2011 Filed under: English, Jakuren, Japanese Comments Off on Jakuren: The First Day of Winter
Poems of Mediaeval Japan by
Jakuren (Buddhist monk and poet: 1139-1202)
* Transliterated Japanese on the left *
yomosugara throughout the night
kusa no iori ni we kept the brushwood burning
shiba taite in my lowly hut,
katarishi koto o and the words that we exchanged
itsuka wasuren I never shall forget
* * *
miyamabi ni deep in this mountain
fuyugomorisuru I keep the winter indoors:
oi no mi o who would care to call
tare ka towamashi on so aged a body,
kimi naranaku ni were it not for you?
* * *
izukuyori you found a path in my dream
yoru no yumeji o the mountain
tadorikoshi is deeply in snow now
miyama wa imada
yuki no fukakini
* * *
ikanishite wondering how you
kimi imasuran have been of late, as the breath
konogoro no of snow in the wind
yukige no kaze no blows colder every day
hibi ni samuki ni
* * *
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