kasoureba yatose henikeri aware wa ga shizumishi koto wa kinō to omou ni
When I count them up, Many years have passed, but Sadness Overcomes me for the events Of yesterday, I feel…
Lord Sanesada 119
Right
いたづらにふりぬるみをもすみよしのまつはさりともあはれしるらむ
itazura ni furinuru mi o mo sumiyoshi no matsu wa sari tomo aware shiruramu
How quickly Age has come upon my flesh, too— Sumiyoshi’s Pines must that Sadness know too well…
Lord Toshinari 120
The poem of the Left: these are not matters which could be understood by just anyone, yet even a superficial glance at it reveals that its conception and configuration display and exceptional sadness. How true it is that off all the myriad things in our lives it is the events of yesterday and today that we recall, and this is how we pass through the years and months, so how difficult, indeed, it is to supress the configuration of ‘When I count them up, / Many years have passed’! As for the Right’s poem, well, the conception of the initial section is pedestrian at best, although the latter section does seem to have some conception to it in places and shows some signs of thought. It is the poor composition of the judge, who is into his dotage. Once more, therefore, I have not rendered judgement, however, I feel that the deity would determine in favour of the Left.
itou tomo naki mono yue ni yo no naka no aware o sasu ga uchinagekitsutsu
With despite I regard it not, yet This mundane world Has such sadness, that Ever am I grief-stricken…
Lord Sanefusa 117
Right (Win)
いたづらにとしもつもりのうらにおふるまつぞわがみのたぐひなりける
itazura ni toshi mo tsumori no ura ni ouru matsu zo wa ga mi no tagui narikeru
How quickly The years have piled up; on Tsumori Shore grow Pines – my sorry self, indeed, Do they resemble!
Lord Yorimasa 118
The poem of the Left has a configuration which directly expresses a single emotion. Its conception sounds in keeping with this. The poem of the Right begins with ‘The years have piled up; on Tsumori / Shore grow’ and continues with ‘Pines – my sorry self, indeed’ which appears very pleasant. Thus, the Right wins.
yo no naka o umiwataritsutsu toshi henuru koto wa tsumori no kami ya tasukemu
In this mundane world, An endless sea of suffering, Have my years gone by; Might Tsumori’s Deity save me, I wonder?
Dharma Master Shun’e 115
Right (Win)
いへのかぜわがみのうへにすずしかれかみのしるしをあふぐとならば
ie no kaze wa ga mi no ue ni suzushikare kami no shirushi o augu to naraba
My house’s breeze of fortune To my sorry self I would bring cool, if For a sign from the God I were to seek…
Lord Sanekuni 116
The Left’s conception is charming, beginning with ‘An endless sea of suffering’ and following this with ‘Might Tsumori’s / Deity save me, I wonder?’, but ‘endless sea of suffering’ does not sound like acceptable diction. The Right’s conception of ‘For a sign from the God / I were to seek’ sounds charming, so I make it the winner.
wa ga sakari yayo izukata e yukinikemu shiranu okina ni mi oba yuzurite
My glory days, O, where have they Gone? An unfamiliar old man Has taken my place…
Lord Kiyosuke 113
Right
いかなればわがひとつらのかかるらむうらやましきはあきのかりがね
ika nareba wa ga hitotsura no kakaruramu urayamashiki wa aki no kari ga ne
What has happened, that My brothers, one and all, Should go so far? How I envy The cries of autumn geese…
Lord Sanetsuna 114
Both of these poems of the Left and Right are, once again, suited to their poets. The Left appears to have a charming conception, looking back on more prosperous times which have now gone—just as anyone would. This is certainly something to resent and yet, in his glory days he was a man of high renown, or someone with great responsibilities among lower officialdom, or even in the Inner Palace Guards or Great Council of State—to hear a man recollecting this and asking ‘where have my glory days gone’—speaking of such things sounds charming, in the end. Truly charming. The poem of the Right finds fault with ‘What has happened, that /My brothers, one and all’ and the poet says ‘How I envy / The cries of autumn geese’. The line of geese in the autumn appears unmistakably to refer to the ordering of brothers—perhaps that order has been disrupted? If so, this, too, is extremely charming. To the extent that these, too, express the writer’s troubles, for the moment, I make them a tie.
nanigoto o akenu kurenu to isoguramu hakanaki yume no yo to wa shirushiru
What is it that makes Dawn and dusk Come so fast? A fleeting dream is This world—that I know so well.
Lord Shigenori 111
Right (Win)
かずならぬみをうきくさとおもへどもなぞよとともにしづむなるらむ
kazu naranu mi o ukikusa to omoedomo nazo yo to tomo ni shizumu naruramu
Not even numbered among folk, so Pitiful am I—a floating duckweed Am I, I feel yet, Why, over such a time Should I sink into the depths?
Lord Morikata 112
The Left’s poem expresses grief over the nature of the mundane world and finds a reason for this in the realisation that all is lost within a fleeting dream. The configuration of the Right poem’s ‘Should I sink into the depths?’ is not particularly elegant, yet placing ‘Pitiful am I—a floating duckweed’ first and then following this with ‘Should I sink into the depths?’ is charming, I have to say. The Right should win.
tama to nomi tsuyu no miyuru wa sasagani no ito o o ni shite nukeba narikeri
Simply as jewels Do the dewdrops seem, when Making the tiny crab—the spider’s Web their thread, They are strung upon it…
4
Right
(Missing)
[i] The topic of this poem is given as ‘Dew’ (Tsuyu 露) in the other text of the match, although the poem is identical. ‘Spider’ (sasgani) contains sasa (‘dwarf bamboo’)/
The Garden Match held by the Chancellor at the Eastern Mansion
When His Lordship, the Chancellor, was having the Eastern Mansion refurbished, he divided his sons into teams and having a large number of charming plants grown in pots on the eastern and western sides of the main hall, he matched poems composed on the names of these plants. These poems are as follows.
Left – Pine
あだしきのちるにもさらににぬまつはちとせこえふるしるべなりけり
adashiki no chiru ni mo sara ni ninu matsu wa chitose koefuru shirube narikeri
The other trees’ Scattering is e’en more Unlike the pines— Passing through a thousand years Is their singular sign.
1a
あたらしき春にもさらににぬまつはちとせこえこぬしるべなりけり
atarashiki haru ni mo sara ni ninu matsu wa chitose koekonu shirube narikeri
A new Spring is e’en more Unlike the pines— That it last not a thousand years Is a singular sign.
1b
Right
たれもみなちとせこえくるまつにのみひさしきことはならへとぞ思ふ
tare mo mina chitose koekuru matsu ni nomi hisashiki koto wa narae to zo omou
Every single one, without exception, Passes through a thousand years— That the pines, alone, Are eternal: Learn that! Or so I feel…
Koichijō sadaijin tadhira senzai awase 小一条左大臣忠平前菜 (‘Garden Match held by Tadahira, Koichijō Minister of the Left’); Daijō daijin-dono tōin senzai awase 大政大臣殿東院前栽合 (‘Garden Match held by the Chancellor at the Eastern Mansion’)
Tōin senzai awase (‘Eastern Mansion Garden Match’) – alternately known as the ‘Garden Match held by Tadahira, Koichijō Minister of the Left’ (Koichijō sadaijin tadhira senzai awase 小一条左大臣忠平前菜) or the ‘Garden Match held by the Chancellor at the Eastern Mansion’ (Daijō daijin-dono tōin senzai awase 大政大臣殿東院前栽合), these variant titles have given rise to a range of theories and explanations about the match’s timing and sponsor. Hagitani (1957, 247–249) provides a summary of these, before arguing that the strongest evidence for this comes from the headnote to a selection of poems contained in Tsurayuki-shū, the personal poetry collection of the eminent poet and compiler of the first imperial poetry anthology, Kokinshū, Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945), which reads:
Presented to the losing side, attached to the diorama prepared by Taji no Sukenawa, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Palace Storehouses for the Garden Match held by the Minister of the Left in the 9th Month, Enchō 5.
Enchō 5 corresponds to 927, and other records confirm that Fujiwara no Tadahira 藤原忠平 (880-949), was both Minister of the Left and resident at the ‘Eastern Mansion’ at this time, so combined with the other evidence and versions of the match’s title – it was common for important personages to be referred to posthumously by the highest position they obtained, rather than by the position they occupied at the time an event took place, and Tadahira was appointed Chancellor (daijō daijin) in 936 – this argument is convincing.
From the headnote to the match, we know that the event was attended by Tadahira and his sons: Saneyori 実頼 (900-970), Morosuke 師輔 (909-960), Moroyasu 師保 (910?-?), Moro’uji 師氏 (916-970) and Morotada 師尹 (920-969). Given its location at Tadahira’s personal residence, it would have been a private and relatively informal event, but the host’s high status and position meant that it would still have been a grand affair as evidenced by the construction of a diorama, in addition to the preparation of plants for the garden.
The authorship of the poems for the match is not listed in its surviving texts, although the headnote implies that they were produced by Tadahira’s sons. Given the very young age of at least two of them, it seems likely that they will have had some assistance with their compositions. The judgements of which poems won and lost were not recorded either, again something characteristic of a private event held for entertainment, so we do not know which team, Left or Right, received Tsurayuki’s poems. It seems unlikely that Tsurayuki would have produced poems for an event at which he was not present, and thus Hagitani argues that he would have performed the role of Reciter, chanting the poems aloud for the assembled company to hear and enjoy.
Unsurprisingly for a senzai awase, the topics for the poems cover a range of plants which would have been encountered in an aristocratic garden of the time. Not all topics have two poems – there are a number of lacunae in the text which means that poems for the Right team are absent – so it is possible that the match was originally had more than the surviving twenty-two poems. A key feature of the composition, however, is that several of the poems are acrostics, which contain the name of a plant within them. There are also two variant texts of the match with some differences between the poems included.
