To say that from now on they should rest and relax in the pines’ shade, when he visited someone’s house.
かげにとて立ちかくるれば唐衣ぬれぬ雨ふるまつの声かな
| kage ni tote tachikakurureba karakoromo nurenu ame furu matsu no koe kana | In the shade, I say, To stand and hide myself away, for Upon my Cathay robe Will fall soughing rain— The sound of pines! |
Tsurayuki
Topic unknown.
しぐれの雨まなくしふればまきの葉もあらそひかねて色づきにけり
| shigure no ame ma nakushi fureba maki no ha mo arasoikanete irozukinikeri | Showers of rain Fall without respite, so Even evergreens’ leaves Can fight no longer, and Take on a hint of colour. |
Hitomaro[i]
[i] This poem appears in Man’yōshū (X: 2196) where it is not attributed to a named poet, so the attribution to Hitomaro here is probably spurious.
On passing through Tokiwa Grove at the beginning of the Tenth Month.
しぐれの雨そめかねてけり山しろのときはのもりの槙の下ばは
| shigure no ame somekanetekeri yamashiro no tokiwa no mori no maki no shitaba wa | Showers of rain Cannot dye In Yamashiro Sempiternal Tokiwa Grove’s Evergreen underleaves…[i] |
Dharma Master Nōin
[i] An allusive variation on: 四具礼能雨 無間之零者 真木葉毛 争不勝而 色付尓家里 shigure no ame / ma nakushi fureba / maki no pa mo / arasoikanete / irozukinikeri ‘Showers of rain / Fall without respite, so / Even evergreens’ leaves / Can fight no longer, and / Take on a hint of colour.’ Anonymous (Man’yōshū X: 2196)
In the Seventh Month, Kenrayku 1 [August 1211], there were very heavy rains and, thinking that this would cause suffering to the common folk, I prayed to an image of the Buddha and, shortly after, spoke this poem.
時によりすぐれば民のなげきなり八大竜王雨やめたまへ
| toki ni yori sugureba tami no nageki nari hachi dairyūō ame yametamae | At this time, Passing, the common folk Suffer; O, Eight Great Dragon Kings,[i] Cease your rains! |
719
[i] The eight Great Dragon Kings (hachi dairyūō 八大龍王) are referenced in the Lotus Sutra. They are: Ānanda 難陀 (Jp. Nanda); Upananda 跋難陀 (Jp. Batsunanda); Shāgara 娑伽羅 (Jp.Shagara); Vasuki 和修吉 (jp. Washikitsu); Takshaka 德叉迦 (Jp. Tokushaka); Anavatapta 阿那婆達多 (Jp. Anabadatta); Manasvin 摩那斯 (Jp. Manashi); and Utpalaka 優鉢羅 (Jp. Uhatsura). As can be seen from Sanetomo’s poem here, they were seen to have dominion over water—rains, rivers and the ocean—and were often invoked to either request rain or to ameliorate storms.
Composed after I had met Dharma Eye Teinin,[i] and heard him tell the tale of Ōmine[ii] among other things.
| okuyama no koke no koromo ni oku tsuyu wa namida no ame no shizuku narikeri | Deep within the mountains Upon his robe of moss The falling dewdrops are A rain of tear Droplets. |
613
[i] Teinin 定忍 has not been identified, but from the context here, he must have been a yamabushi 山伏, an itinerant Buddhist monk and practitioner of shugendō.
[ii] Ōmine 大峰 was a mountain in Yoshino in Yamato which was a major location for practitioners of the ascetic Buddhist practice of shugendō 修験道, which involved, among other things, ascending the mountain to increase one’s spiritual power.
Round Three
Left[i]
君が代は神にぞいのる住之江の松の千年をゆづれとおもへば
| kimi ga yo wa kami ni zo inoru suminoe no matsu no chitose o yuzure to omoeba | My Lord’s reign: To the gods I pray, that Suminoe’s Pines their thousand years Pass on—that is my hope… |
Retired from the World
61a
きみがへむやちよのかずはあめにますとよをかひめの神やしるらん
| kimi ga hemu yachiyo no kazu wa ame ni masu toyo’okahime no kami ya shiruran | That my Lord will endure The number of eight thousand ages— Residing in the heavens, The Goddess of the Eternal Hills, The deity, knows well, no doubt! |
Retired from the World
61b
Right (Win)
君がよはつきじとぞおもふ春の日の御笠の山にささむかぎりは
| kimi ga yo wa tsukiji to zo omou haru no hi no mikasa no yama ni sasamu kagiri wa | My Lord’s reign Will never fade, I feel! While in spring the sun Upon Mikasa Mountain Shines down… |
Senior Assistant Minister Past Lecturer
62
Both Left and Right have neither strengths nor weakness in their diction and sense, but I feel that ‘While in spring the sun / Upon Mikasa Mountain / Shines down’ is a bit more dependable at present than ‘Suminoe’s / Pines their thousand years’.
It is certainly not the case that there are no dubious elements about the Left’s poem. As ‘eight thousand ages’ is a definite number, what is it that the Goddess of the Eternal Hills is expected to know? If this is something in the deity’s hands, then it should be, ‘does not even know the number’. I’m sure the Goddess herself would ask what she’s expected to know. The Right seems stronger.
[i] There are different poems by Eien this round in different versions of the text of the contest. As can be inferred from the judgements, Mototoshi saw the first poem and Toshiyori the second. This strongly suggests that Mototoshi’s judgements were circulated before the text of the contest was submitted to Toshiyori, and Eien revised his poem this round as a result (Kubota et al. 2018, 308).
Round Two
Left (Win)
君がよはあまのいはとをいづるひのいくめぐりてふかずもしられず
| kimi ga yo wa ama no iwato o izuru hi no iku meguri chō kazu mo shirarezu | My Lord’s reign: Since from the stone door in the heavens Emerged the sun, ‘How many circuits has she made?’, they ask— A number quite unknown. |
Lord Saburō
59
Right
みかさやまふもとのさとはあめのしたふるにおもひもあらじとぞ思ふ
| mikasayama fumoto no sato wa ame no shita furu ni omoi mo araji to zo omou | At Mikasa Moutain’s Foot, in a hamlet ‘neath the heavens Passing time—painful thoughts There I’d have not a one, I feel! |
Ushigimi
60
The Left’s poem goes beyond the general flow of diction, containing mystery and depth. I have to say it is truly superior. While the Right’s poem has no faults to mention, it has yet to emerge from prosaic expression. Thus, the Left wins.
The ‘stone door in the heavens’ is that which the supreme sun-deity Amaterasu stood before and then entered. But when we’re talking about dawn breaking at the end of night, we say ‘gates of heaven’. Which of these two was did the poet have in mind, I wonder? If he was thinking of dawn breaking, then the usage is erroneous, but even if he did mean ‘stone door of the heavens’, then do we use this about the circuits of the sun? This is vague. In addition, the final ‘they ask’ is difficult to pronounce. As for the Right’s poem, ‘‘neath the heavens’ lacks emotion. The dual use of ‘thoughts’ and ‘feels’, as I have already remarked, is not an error, but does grate on the ears a bit.
