Kyōgoku no miyasudokoro uta’awase 16

Original

ゆきがてにふくはるかぜははやけれどあをやまなればさむからなくに

yukigate ni
fuku harukaze wa
hayakeredo
aoyama nareba
samukaranaku ni
Blended with snow
Blows the spring breeze
So swift, yet
In the padded jacket of the mountain’s green,
It’s not so cold at all…

46

Left

あをやまのなをきてたれかふくかぜをさむからずとはおもひしるらむ

aoyama no
na o kite tare ka
fuku kaze o
samukarazu to wa
omoishiruramu
A padded jacket of the mountain’s green?
Who would come hearing that, and
By the gusting wind
Remain unchilled,
Do you really think…

47

Right

ゆきがてのかぜもなにかはさむからんはるのひかりのみてるやまべは

yukigate no
kaze mo nanika wa
samukaran
haru no hikari no
miteru yamabe wa
Blended with snow,
What is it might make the wind
So cold?
Where the light of spring
Shines upon the mountainside…

48

Kyōgoku no miyasudokoro uta’awase 15

Original

こまなべてきみがみにくるかすがのはまつかさしげしあめにさはるな

koma nabete
kimi ga mi ni kuru
kasugano wa
matsukasa shigeshi
ame ni sawaru na
Mounts aligned,
My Lord has come to see
Kasuga Plain, where
The plentiful pinecones mean
He’ll be untroubled by rain!

43

Left (Win)

ぬれつつもあめにはゆかむまつかさのちとせのはるをもらさざらなむ

nuretsutsu mo
ame ni wa yukamu
matsukasa no
chitose no haru o
morasazaranamu
Even dampened
By the rain, let us go!
For the pinecones
Over a thousand years of springtimes
Will surely not allow a single drip!

44[1]

Right

かすがののまつかさだにもなかりせばあめふるさとにわれこましやは

kasugano no
matsukasa dani mo
nakariseba
ame furu sato ni
ware komashi ya wa
If on Kasuga Plain
Even pinecones
Were there not, then,
To the rainswept ancient capital
Why would I come at all?

45


[1] This poem is included in Ise-shū (107) with the headnote ‘From the time of the Kasuga Poetry Match’, implying that this is Ise’s work, even if she is not identified as the poet in the text here.

SZS VI: 422

Composed on the conception of hawking, when he presented a hundred poem sequence during the reign of former Emperor Horikawa.

ふる雪にゆくへも見えずはし鷹のをぶさのすずのおとばかりして

Furu yuki ni
yukuwe mo miezu
Fasitaka no
wobusa no suzu no
oto bakari site
In the falling snow,
Where he’s gone I cannot see;
The sparrowhawk’s
Tail-jesses
Make the only sound.

Dharma Master Ryūgen

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 44

Round Eight

Left (Tie)

紅葉ばは紅ふかく成りゆけど独さめたる松の色かな

momijiba wa
kurenai fukaku
nariyukedo
hitori sametaru
matsu no iro kana
The autumn leaves
Deeply scarlet
Are becoming, yet
Singly, all the more aware am I
Of the pine tree’s hues!

Koreyuki
87

Right

ははそ原しぐるるままにときは木のまれなりけるも今ぞみえける

hahasowara
shigururu mama ni
tokiwagi no
marenarikeru mo
ima zo miekeru
As the oak groves
Linger under showers,
An evergreen,
So rare, is
What appears to me now.

Kojijū
88

Both Left and Right drop scarlet leave and are composed on evergreens, so they lack the essence of the topic, don’t they. The Right has the finer configuration, but autumn leaves, pointlessly, fail to appear in it. In addition, somewhat distastefully, it puts me in mind of the poem, ‘…Truly, evergreen / The pine tree seems’,[1] so the best these can do is tie.


[1] A poem from a poetry contest held by Her Majesty, the Empress, in the Kanpyō period. 雪ふりて年のくれぬる時こそつひにもみぢぬ松も見えけれ yuki furite / toshi no kurenuru / toki ni koso / tsui ni momijinu / matsu mo miekere ‘Snow falls and /The year reaches its evening, / It is at this time that / Truly, evergreen / The pine tree seems.’ Anonymous (KKS VI: 340)

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 43

Round Seven

Left (Tie)

色色にそむる紅葉に立田姫心のほどのみえもするかな

iroiro ni
somuru momiji ni
tatsutahime
kokoro no hodo no
mie mo suru kana
In the multitude of shades
Dyeing the scarlet leaves,
Princess Tatsuta’s
Deep thought and care
Can be seen!

Sadanaga
85

Right

いろいろにとり染めてけり立田姫はしむらごなる衣手の杜

iroiro ni
torisometekeri
tatsutahime
hashi muragonaru
koromode no mori
In a multitude of shades
Has her dye taken;
Princess Tatsuta stains
The edges dark and light of
The sacred grove at Koromode.

Lord Suetsune
86

The Left has nothing remarkable about it, and its ending is old-fashioned, I think. The Right, too, seems to be in the eccentric style, and so it’s impossible for me to say anything else about either of them.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 42

Round Six

Left (Win)

山姫はもみぢのにしきおりてけりたちなやつしそ嶺の朝霧

yamahime wa
momiji no nishiki
oritekeri
tachi na yatsushi so
mine no asagiri
The mountain’s princess,
Of scarlet leaves brocade
Has woven;
In your rising don’t despoil it,
O, morning mists upon the peak!

Lord Kinshige
83

Right

しぐれには紅葉の色ぞまさりける又かきくもる空はいとはじ

shigure ni wa
momiji no iro zo
masarikeri
mata kakikumoru
sora wa itowaji
A shower makes
The scarlet leaves’ hues
Most fine;
So, the swiftly clouding
Sky I could not dislike.

Lord Masahira

84

The Right sounds as if the poet has just come to the revelation that, even though a showery sky is charming, can one possibly dislike it, given that it improves the hues of the scarlet leaves. The Left isn’t bad, but it does have two identical sounds ending lines, and this has been called the same-sounding rhyme fault, I believe. With that being said, in the Tentoku Poetry Match, there were some poems with this feature which were criticized, and some which were not, so I wonder if this is not something to particularly worry about. In this poem it doesn’t sound like a defect and, taking this together with the fact that the Right’s poem is poor, the Left should win.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 41

Round Five

Left

あさひ山みねの紅葉をみわたせばよもの木末に照りまさりけり

asahiyama
mine no momiji o
miwataseba
yomo no kozue ni
terimasarikeri
When upon Asahi Mountain’s
Peak of scarlet leaves
I turn my gaze,
All over, the treetops
Shine most bright!

Tamechika
81

Right (Win)

紅のやしほの色にめかれすなおなじはもりの神といへども

kurenai no
yashio no iro ni
mekaresu na
onaji hamori no
kami to iedomo
From the scarlet,
Deeply dyed, hues
O, avert not your eyes!
Though the same leaves’ guardian
Deity you are called…

Moromitsu
82

The Left has nothing particular to say and its expression is awkward. As for the Right, a number of learned men seem to have said that one does not compose about the guardian deity of the leaves in relation to trees in general, but about oak trees, yet a great many things have deities to protect them, so I wonder if the guardian deity of the leaves could be a deity for all types of tree—couldn’t it protect any of them? Thus, in this poem, too, couldn’t that be the case? While the concluding ‘though you are called’sounds overly direct, it appears it should win.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 40

Round Four

Left (Win)

色ふかきやしほの岡の紅葉ばに心をさへもそめてけるかな

iro fukaki
yashio no oka no
momijiba ni
kokoro o sae mo
sometekeru kana
Deep the hues
On Yashio Hill
Of the scarlet leaves—
Even my heart, too,
Have they dyed!

Lord Yorisuke
79

Right

しぐれつつ秋こそふかく成りにけり色どりわたるやのの神山

shiguretsutsu
aki koso fukaku
narinikeri
irodori wataru
yano no kamiyama
With constant showers
Autumn has, indeed, deeper
Grown;
A change of hue all across
Sacred Mount Yano.

Lord Michiyoshi
80

While the Left sounds well-worn, it flows smoothly. As for the Right, it sounds to me as if the poet has simply picked and placed a location from the Collection of a Myriad Leaves into his poem, so ‘a change of hue all across sacred Mount Yano is stylistically archaic—thus the Left wins.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 39

Round Three

Left

くれなゐのこぞめの色とみえつるや八しほの岡の紅葉なるらん

kurenai no
kozome no iro to
mietsuru ya
yashio no oka no
momiji naruran
With scarlet
Hues deeply dyed
Do, perhaps, seem
Yashio Hill’s
Autumn leaves?

Kenshō
77

Right (Win)

初時雨ふりにし里をきてみればみかきが原は紅葉しにけり

hatsu shigure
furinishi sato o
kitemireba
mikaki ga hara wa
momijinishikeri
The first showers
Have fallen on this ancient estate
I have come to see:
Mikaki Field has
All turned to autumn hues.

Suketaka
78

While the Left displays great technical skill in juxtaposing ‘deeply dyed with scarlet hues’ and ‘Yashio Hill’, the Right at present is conclusively composed with a somewhat more decorous configuration relaxed manner. In this it conveys emotion as poems of old did, and so I believe it should certainly win.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 38

Round Two

Left (Win)

秋霧のたえまにみゆる紅葉ばやたちのこしたる錦なるらん

akigiri no
taema ni miyuru
momijiba ya
tachinokoshitaru
nishiki naruran
The autumn mists have
Gaps revealing
Scarlet leaves—
Remaining offcuts of
Brocade, perhaps?

Lord Tsunemori
75

Right

もみぢちる立田の山はえぞこえぬ錦をふまむ道をしらねば

momiji chiru
tatsuta no yama wa
e zo koenu
nishiki o fumamu
michi o shiraneba
Scattered with scarlet leaves
Tatsuta Mountain
I cannot cross, for
To tread upon a brocade
Path I know not how…

Lord Yorimasa
76

The Right is a poem on fallen leaves and blossom—something about which many people have composed in the recent past and modern times, too. The Left sounds as if it truly depicts things as they are. Its overall construction is lovely, too, so it should win.