Sand Pear Blossom
よの中をうしといひてもいづくにかみをばかくさむ山なしの花
| yo no naka o ushi to iitemo izuku ni ka mi oba kakusamu yamanashi no hana | This mundane world I hate, I say, yet Somewhere I would hide myself away among The sand-pear blossoms. |
15[i]
[i] This poem is included in Kokin rokujō (4268), with the headnote ‘Sand Pear’, and also in Mandaishū (2812) with the headnote, ‘From the Poetry Match at the Residence of the Ōmi Lady of the Bedchamber’.
Maple
はるがすみたちそめしよりいろかへてのはならしてきわかなつむべく
| harugasumi tachi someshi yori iro kaete no wa narashiteki wakana tsumubeku | Since the haze of spring Began to rise, Hues changing, Upon the plains have grown Fresh herbs that we may pick them! |
14
This poem is an acrostic, with ‘maple blossom’ (kaede no hana) contained within kaete no wa narashiteki.
Smilax Blossom
なくこゑはあまたすれどもうぐひすにまさるとりのはなくぞありける
| naku koe wa amata suredomo uguisu ni masaru tori no ha naku zo arikeru | Sung songs are there Many, yet The bush-warbler is Outmatched by no bird’s Wings at all! |
13
This poem is an acrostic, with ‘smilax blossom’ (sarutori no hana) contained within masaru tori no ha naku.
In days long past, when a man was passing a certain lady’s apartments at the palace, the lady, seeming to bear him some ill will, called out, ‘Go on, then, you creeper and see what becomes of you!’[1] The man replied:
罪もなき人をうけへば忘れ草おのが上にぞ生ふといふなる
| tsumi mo naki hito o uke’eba wasuregusa ono ga ue ni zo ou to iu naru | When a sinless Man you curse, Forgotten, among the day-lillies Upon you Growing, will you be, they say! |
64
Some among the women were very vexed by that.
[1] Sanjōnishi Sanetaka (1455-1537) identifies this as part of a poem from Shoku man’yōshū:
忘れゆくつらさはいかにいのちあらばよしや草葉よならむさがみむ
| wasureyuku tsurasa wa ika ni inochi araba yoshi ya kusaba naramu saga mimu | To gradually forget Your cruelty, somehow Had I but life left, Go on, then, you creeper, and See what becomes of you! |
Shoku man’yōshū is no longer extant, and so the accuracy of this cannot be determined (Horiuchi and Akiyama 1997, 111).
Kusaba (‘blade of grass’), which I have translated as ‘creeper’, was a slang term used to refer to an unfaithful man.
Round Four
Left (Both Judges – Win)
こひわぶる君が雲ゐの月ならば及ばぬ身にも影はみてまし
| koiwaburu kimi ga kumoi no tsuki naraba oyobanu mi ni mo kage wa mitemashi | So cruel in your love, My lord, above the clouds The moon were you, then Though it reaches me not I wish your light to see… |
Lady Kazusa
55
Right
いのるらん神のたたりはなさるとも逢ふてふ事に身をばけがさじ
| inoruran kami no tatari wa nasaru tomo au chō koto ni mi oba kegasaji | You seem to pray for it, and Even should a deity’s taboo This break, A meeting Would be no pollution, I feel… |
Lord Akinaka
56
Toshiyori states: the first poem makes a person into the moon, and is different in sense from the poem in the Tentoku poetry match which also uses ‘Though it reaches me not’. The second poem appears to be one written after becoming close to another—if that’s what the composition is about, then it should include an element from a prior poem for precedent. Then again, one could compose like this as a response to a prayer received from a man’s residence, in which case it would resemble something sent between people who have yet to meet. It loses.
Mototoshi states: saying ‘My lord, above the clouds / The moon were you, then’ appears an elegant sequence. I wonder if it was composed with the poem by Nakatsukasa in a poetry match in Tenryaku, where she uses ‘above the clouds, the moon’? While the ‘beloved light’ in this poem is very well depicted, here the diction seems stilted. As for the Right, up to ‘You seem to pray for it, and /Even should a deity’s taboo’ is acceptable, but ‘A meeting / Would be no pollution, I feel’ is extremely difficult to understand. Would a meeting, of whatever sort, be a cause of pollution? It really makes me feel as if something like ‘ditch’ was going to be dropped in! Neither has a charming conception, yet ‘above the clouds, the moon’ is slightly better in the present context.
Round Three
Left (Both Judges – Win)
いはぬまの下はふ蘆のねを重みひまなき恋を君知るらめや
| iwanuma no shitahau ashi no ne o shigemi himanaki koi o kimi shirurame ya | Silently beneath the marsh rocks Creep the reeds’ Roots in such profusion, Not a space free from love, but Does my lady know, I wonder? |
A Court Lady
53
Right
身をつみて思ひや知るとこころみにながためつらき人もあらなん
| mi o tsumite omoi ya shiru to kokoromi ni na ga tame tsuraki hito mo aranan | Pinching flesh, Would you know passion’s fire? To test it, I wish For you there was a cruel One, too… |
Lord Masakane
54
Toshiyori states: the first poem is extremely charming. It seems to have no faults to mention. In the second poem, ‘For you there was a cruel one’ would be something quite impolite if said by a woman. Court ladies may lose their composure, yet they still appear to speak with dignity. In the absence of a prior poem as precedent, the first poem should win, I think.
Mototoshi states: this poem seems to have no faults to mention, and of the two, ‘beneath creep the reeds’ seems a bit more gently refined at present.
