kimi ya aranu wa ga mi ya aranu obotsukana tanomeshi koto no mina kawarinuru
Aren’t you who you once were? Aren’t I who I was then? How strange that All we trusted in Has changed.
Shun’e 57
Right
恋ひしなん命ぞをしきつれもなき人にしも身をかへんねたさに
koishinan inochi zo oshiki tsure mo naki hito ni shimo mi o kaen netasa ni
That I would die of love Makes me regret my life! But for that cruel Girl should I Exchange myself—exasperating!
Yorisuke
58
I feel the left is old-fashioned, isn’t it? And yet, it is not without feeling. The Right does not have a poor conception, but its diction is insufficient.
Among the courtiers in service to His Majesty, former Emperor Uda, it was possible to pick out those who had some sensitivity and those who did not, so in a certain year, when the kōshin rite came around on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, those gentlemen who were thought to have this sensitivity spent the day composing poems on the topic of ‘feelings after meeting at Tanabata’ which were divided into teams and matched.
Left
としごとにこりずやあるらんたなばたのあひてこひしきわかれのみする
toshigoto ni korizu ya aruran tanabata no aite koishiki wakare nomi suru
Every single year Does she never learn, I wonder? The Weaver Maid Meets and then with love Does simply part.
1
Right (Win)
おもひやる心のそらにしらるればたなばたつめのわかれかなしな
omoiyaru kokoro no sora ni shirarureba tanabatatsume no wakare kanashiki
Yearning fills The heavens of her heart— How well she knows it, for The Weaver Maid’s Parting is so sad.
This is a small-scale contest containing only twenty-six poems. It was held on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, Engi 16 [8.8.916] (Hagitani 1957, 205), when the kōshin rite fell on that day, meaning that those participating had to stay up throughout the night. As the name of the contest suggests, the poets were courtiers in the service of former Emperor Uda, although their names have not been recorded; nor has the identity of the judge, but given the context, it seems likely that this will have been Uda himself. The 7th day of the Seventh Month was when Tanabata, the meeting between the celestial lovers, the Weaver Maid and the Herd Boy, was celebrated, and so it is unsurprising that the topic set for the match was ‘feelings after meeting at Tanabata’.
koishinan inochi o tare ni yuzuri’okite tsurenaki hito no hate o misemashi
Likely dying of love, My life, to whom should I Consign? That cruel girl’s Ending—would that show it to her?
Shun’e
51
Right (Win)
つれもなき人はおもひもすてられでうき身のみこそなげまほしけれ
tsure mo naki hito wa omoi mo suterarede ukimi no mi koso nagemahoshikere
So cruel is That girl, but my passion for her I cannot abandon; It is my pitiful self that I would wish to throw away!
Kenshō
52
The Left isn’t bad, but it’s a bit cliched. As for the Right, having both ‘abandon’ and ‘throw away’ could be a fault and yet the conception of one ‘abandoning passion’ is different. Whichever way you look at it, it wins.
