英語訳
## [Right Folio, Upper Section] — Songs of the Four Seasons: Flowers and Birds (continued)
**Ninth Month (September): Pampas Grass (susuki) & Quail (uzura)**
The pampas grass in flower —
abandoning the dewy dampness
of its grassy sleeves,
how indifferent is the autumn
as it fades away!
Even away from human eyes,
deep in the fields of Fukakusa,
has it withered now?
Waiting for winter,
the quail must be crying
in the frost.
**Tenth Month (October): Lingering Chrysanthemums (zangiku) & Crane (tsuru)**
If the chrysanthemums of the frost night
of the Godless Month (Kannazuki)
had no fragrance,
what would we keep as a memento of autumn?
In the evening sunlight, a flock of cranes
holds its course —
while the shower clouds
circle round the mountains.
---
## [Right Folio, Middle Section] — Poems of the Five Elements, by Lord Teika (Fujiwara no Teika)
**Wood (ki)**
Even in the smoke today
rising from the hearths of the people
who govern the land —
the branches of distant mountain trees
make themselves known.
**Fire (hi)**
Going before me
on the road through the deep night —
is the light of the pine torch
all there is of a vow
to see me on my way?
**Earth (tsuchi)**
Not even knowing when it first welled forth —
from the rough, unworked earth
the seas and mountains of all four directions have formed.
**Metal/Gold (kane)**
The frost deepens, the moonlight whitens,
and in the wind there falls
the sound of the autumn bell.
---
## [Right Folio, Lower Section]
In the dim confusion of twilight, something faintly visible in bloom —
the evening face (yūgao) flower trailing beyond the eaves of a modest house in the lane.
Musashino, Sarashina, Suma, Akashi — all their reflections
gathered here in the moon's gaze: the view is always wide over Hirosawa Pond.
The one I think of night after night only in dreams —
who has set up the Boundary Barrier of Nakoso in Michinoku
so that nothing can pass between us in waking life?
Longing and longing, longing and longing for the one I love — on Mount Matsura,
there must be someone waiting; let me go and see — come, let us go and meet!
The frost-night bed, impossible to endure till dawn, is lonely too —
the sound of the storm goes rustling and pattering; what falls with that sound is hail upon the bamboo grass.
**The Kumo-i (Cloud Palace) Melody**
Ours is a love that must hide from others' eyes — my feelings fill my chest;
like Chika-no-Shiogama in Michinoku, only in name are we apart, yet I burn with longing.
Do I forget? Am I forgotten? I cannot even think of my own situation —
what will become, in the end, of that fickle, heartless person?
Even when we meet by rare chance, my sleeves are wetted all the more with tears.
---
## [Left Folio, Upper Section] — Songs of the Four Seasons: Flowers and Birds (continued)
**Eleventh Month (November): Loquat (biwa) & Plover (chidori)**
On a winter's day, the frost spares
neither grass nor tree its colour —
yet the blossoms on the branches,
unchanged, may be mistaken for it.
Plovers cry
at the river shallows
where the ducks gather;
the midnight moon
polishes the mountains
alongside the sleeves of those who meet.
**Twelfth Month (December): Early Plum (sōbai) & Waterfowl (mizutori)**
The colours lie buried
beneath the snow on the fence —
and yet, at this time of year,
the fragrance of plum blossoms
drifts and perfumes the air.
Gazing out over the pond,
on the ice,
the falling snow
layers upon the years —
oh, the feather robe of the mandarin ducks!
---
## [Left Folio, Middle Section] — Poems of the Five Elements (continued)
**Water (mizu)**
The dripping of the mountain with nowhere to go —
only a trickle flowing,
the white waves at the end of the water.
**Poems of the Five Colours, by Lord Teika**
**Blue/Green (shō — aoshi)**
It could be mistaken
for the colour of a riverside bamboo bridge —
the hollyhock caught
on a jewelled bamboo blind.
**Yellow (ō — kiiro)**
The kerria rose on the bank,
its branches intertwined —
the flowers scatter; across the crimson dew
the waves pass over.
**Red (shaku — akashi)**
The clouds that brought the cold shower
are themselves dyed by the sunlight,
as the peak's winter wind
brings down the scarlet leaves.
**White (byaku — shiroshi)**
Mountain cherry blossoms
on the peak where white clouds
pile up in layers —
continuing into the sky,
the tumbling cascade of river waves.
**Black (koku — kuroshi)**
In the darkness of jet-black night
I push aside her hair,
but however accustomed I become,
it is in vain — the black hair
upon the pillow.
---
## [Left Folio, Lower Section]
Anticipating tomorrow's farewell, tears flow even before the parting comes —
In the tedium of a rainy day, thinking of the past — with sorrow added,
the night breeze of the pines taps at the grass-thatched door.
My body is like a drifting boat that has lost its oar, with nowhere to turn —
in time with the sound of waves beating against the rocky shore,
my heart is shattered into a thousand pieces.
Now, the koto (Japanese zither) has many names: *Tōkun* (Lord of Paulownia), *Tōson* (Descendant of Paulownia), *Gentō* (Stringed Paulownia), *Rakuro* (Falling Dew), *Un'ka* (Harmonious Clouds), and *Seikaku* (Pure Guest).
One should learn its tunings and come to know the *Kumo-i* tuning,
and also the *Ni-agari* (second string raised) and *San-sagari* (third string lowered) tunings, among others, through proper instruction.
The strings are counted from the far side, beginning with "one"; the eleventh string is called *chō*, the twelfth is called *in*, and the thirteenth is called *kin*. Even a girl who has not yet mastered the tongue-roll technique (*rinzetsu*), whose fingers are not yet accustomed to the 5-3-4 arpeggio (*sugagaki*), will, if she simply draws close to the koto, find that without any instruction she plucks a note — and even the greatest master of this art begins first by tuning the instrument in exactly this way.
And so, the poem composed by the Saigu no Nyōgo — "Does the wind through the pines on the peak reach the koto's tone? From which string did the tuning first begin?" — is a celebrated poem that dwells within three strings and communes with the koto.