「令和」の時代になりました。令和は万葉集からとられたとのことです。日本語の素晴らしさを味わうと共に、英語に表現してみたいと思いました。万葉集、古今和歌集、新古今和歌集をぱらぱらと目を通すなか、なぜか新古今和歌集の雑歌に魅せられ数首を英訳しました。特に菅原道真の作品のすばらしさ、その現代的感性に心を奪われました。
“Ryowa” Era has started. The name is taken from ‘Manyoshu’, The Ten Thousand Leaves. Recognizing the splendidness of Japanese poetry, I would like to enjoy them in English. Flipping through ‘Manyoshu’, ‘Kokin Waka Shu’ and ‘Shin-Kokin Waka Shu’, I am fascinated by a few miscellaneous wakas from ‘Shin-Kokin Waka Shu’. In particular, I am attracted to the excellence and the modern sensibility of Michizane Sugawara.
Here you go. – Translated by Kota Nakako
あしひきの こなたかなたに 道はあれど 都へいざと いふ人ぞなき
菅原道真
Many roads here and there
Around the mountain local
Yet none invites me dare
To go to the capital
I long for with duties official
By Michizane Sugawara
海ならず 湛へる水の 底までに 清き心は 月ぞ照らさん
菅原道真
Not the sea
Filled with pure water
In the depth you will see
Transcendent in the mirror
The rays of the moon luster
By Michizane Sugawara
世の中を 思へばなべて 散る花の わが身をさても いづしかもせん
西行法師
In the world ever-changing and turbulent
To reflect upon the time passing
Like flowers all perishing and impermanent
Am I just wondering
How to dispose of myself settling
By Saigyo Hoshi
長らへば またこのごろや しのばれん 憂しと見し世ぞ 今は恋しき
藤原清輔
Many years did I spent my life vainly
Sad days I ruminate
The world I looked back woefully
Yet I now contemplate
And long for the world once desolate
By Kiyosuke Fujiwara
