Take on the Hyakunin Isshu quiz! Guess the lower verse from the upper verse!

My sleeves and hands grow wet with dew.

From life in nature, one can sense the atmosphere of the long autumn nights. It depicts the nights of farmers keeping watch over the rice fields, with the coarse weave of the temporary hut’s walls and sleeves getting wet from the night dew falling from the roof. It also shows farmers lodging in these roughly built shelters. The poem conveys a sense of respect for the farmers who grow and harvest rice, the staple food of the Japanese people.

On this long, long night, must I sleep alone?

Nights spent with unreturned feelings for someone you love can feel long and lonely, can’t they? This piece expresses those drawn-out, aching nights through the long tail of a mountain pheasant. It also alludes to the species’ behavior: while a pair stays together during the day, at night they sleep apart on opposite sides of a valley.

When hearing their voices—how sorrowful autumn is.

On an autumn day when the once-beautiful autumn leaves are coming to an end, one can also feel a sense of loneliness. In those days, it was said that when autumn arrived, male deer cried out in search of females. Surrounded by a carpet of fallen leaves underfoot, hearing the calls of deer, the poet may have sung while feeling a longing for human company. It is a quiet mountain scene rich with the colors of fallen leaves, yet it also conveys loneliness. You can sense the delicate nuances of Japan’s changing seasons, too.

Snow keeps falling upon my sleeves.

Emperor Kōkō, the 58th emperor, was a person of refined taste and is said to have been not only skilled in waka poetry but also a master of the koto. The phrase “in the spring fields” results in an extra syllable, but perhaps that very irregularity gives the poem a tighter rhythm. The blend of imagery and rhythm is truly lovely, isn’t it?

Is it the moon that has risen over Mount Mikasa?

Today, it’s easy to travel abroad, but there were times when returning to Japan was difficult. Abe no Nakamaro, who went to Tang China as a Japanese envoy, was so talented that it’s said he found it hard to come back to Japan. He is believed to have lived in Tang for about 30 years. When his return was finally set, he must have looked up at the moon and overlaid it with the moon he had seen in his homeland.

That in deep crimson, water is bound together

Among the poems in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, this verse is particularly famous and is said to have been composed by Ariwara no Narihira upon viewing a folding screen painting of autumn leaves. In later years, it even inspired a rakugo routine in which a know-it-all retiree gives an incorrect explanation of the poem—making it well-known in that context as well.

The midnight moon has hidden behind the clouds.

On a cloudy night, it can be difficult to see the moon without it being obstructed by the clouds. At times, you might catch a glimpse of a beautiful moon peeking through a break in the clouds. The way the moon appears like that is similar to meeting someone after a long time only to part again in haste. Describing a brief encounter between people through the image of the moon conveys both beauty and a touch of sadness.