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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
藤原基俊
契りおきし
させもが露を
いのちにて
あはれ今年の
秋もいぬめり
あはれこと
しのあきも
いぬめり
ちぎりお
- Poem 75
- 契りおきし
させもが露を
いのちにて
あはれ今年の 秋もいぬめり
Author: Fujiwara no Mototoshi (1060–1142)
Source: Senzai Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- It is a promise unfulfilled, For which I humbly sue The dainty little mugwort plant Relies
upon the dew, And I rely—on you.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- You promised me, and I staked my life on it like the morning dew on the wormwood. But another autumn is passing, alas.
- Commentary
- According to the headnote in the Senzai Wakashū, Mototoshi asked Fujiwara no Tadamichi (Poem 76) to help his son Kōkaku, a monk at Kōfuku-ji Temple, be appointed lecturer at the Yuima-e assembly. Tadamichi replied by quoting a line from an old poem — "On the moor of Shimeji" — seeming to promise his help, but in the end Kōkaku was not chosen for the post. Deeply disappointed, Mototoshi composed this poem.
- About the Poet
- Mototoshi was a great-grandson of Fujiwara no Michinaga, though his own court rank remained modest, rising no higher than Junior Fifth Rank, Lower. A champion of traditional poetic style, he was often at odds with Minamoto no Toshiyori (Poem 74), an advocate of more innovative forms, though the two men together stood as the twin pillars of poetry during the era of cloistered rule. His students included Fujiwara no Shunzei (Poem 83).
- Fujiwara no Mototoshi's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
Trusting those words,
I waited through the turning of the seasons.But autumn quietly passed,
leaving only a heart full of sighs.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).