three tanka of Fujiwara Teika

circumspectuous
I dispense with red foliage
and cherry blossoms
only the cove with thatched roofs
together at dusk in fall

 

*

 

no abode is to me
who have a road-weary horse
and sleeves to brush off
the fields around the Sano
are covered at dusk in snow

 

*

 

a woman awaiting her lover

his footsteps I crave
over the hills and to me
obliterated
heavier the snow becomes
on the cedars at my eaves

 

tr. after Prof. Miner