Tanka
Some translations from the Hyakku-nin Isshu,
or The Issue of a Hundred People

 

 

 

51 by Fujiwara no Sanekata

 

Why so strongly red,
As if I could tell of them
That sad mogusa[1]
Retains their own way of pain
And like love, must endure it.

 

 

 

52 by Fujiwara no Michi-Nobu

 

If the morning breaks,
The coming things are all there,
Whitened by their length
And all by the look of things,
Is nothing but morning light.

 

 

 

53 by Udaisho Michi-Tsuna no Hana

 

Little by little
The longer I stay alone,
Empty space becomes
Weary, and like me, wary
Of changing the things I know.

 

 

 

54 by Taka

 

Remembrances'
Easy terminuses are
Perhaps just the way
That today is appearing;
Life's winding down to an end.

 

 

 

55 by Kintoh[2]

 

This waterfall's sound
Stands falling in my memory;
Its respiration,
Heard so long away from here,
Now in my hearing trickles.

 

 

 

56 by Izumi Shikibu[3]

 

From life's end I see
This world's way has another
Way of thinking in;
The people of now in time
Will have chance to meet again.

 

 

 

57 by Murasaki Shikibu[4]

 

There in moonlight-met
Was but a sight of that friend;
From my unknown space
The clouds obscured more than sky
As she moved just like the moon.

 

 

 

58 by Daini no Sammi

 

Under the mountain
On the wild moor where we met
The wind batters me
To look for what can be found,
And to think of you no more.

 

 

 

59 by Akazome Emon[5]

 

Easy slides the wait
As all the restless things here
Lie in bed with me,
Perhaps till the moon's setting
Will show me my moon once more.

 

 

 

63 by Michimasa

 

Now is but only
When death is the thought of you,
The many whispers –
If no one blocked our meeting –
That I would place in your ear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Mogusa = the herb mugwort. Also by extension the dried and caked mugwort pellets or sticks burned on the skin as medicine. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moxibustion

 

[2] The original is so charming, as the words sound like moving water:

 

Taki no oto wa
Taeta hisashiku
Narnuredo
Na koso nagarete
Noa kikoe kere.

 

[3] This is a deathbed poem, and it is has always been illustrated to show that the beloved is another woman kneeling by her side.

 

[4] The writer's penname means 'Lady Purple,' and she is the same author of the great epic novel Genji Monogatari (The Tales of Genji). The nature of the attraction mentioned here is from the poet to another woman.

 

[5] The image is of a lady waiting alone in bed all night for her lover to come to her. When that person does, it will be as beautiful as the moon rising a second time.