Tag Archives: Arashi

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 16

Round Four

Left

さをしかのなくねはよそにききつれど涙は袖の物にぞ有りける

saoshika no
naku ne wa yoso ni
kikitsuredo
namida wa sode no
mono ni zo arikeru
The stag’s
Sad bell in the distance
Did I hear, yet still
My tears my sleeves
Have covered.

Sadanaga
31

Right (Win)

山たかみおろすあらしやよわるらんかすかに成りぬさをしかの声

yama takami
orosu arashi ya
yowaruran
kasuka ni narinu
saoshika no koe
From the mountain’s heights
Descending, has the storm wind
Weakened?
Faintly comes
The stag’s bell.

Lord Suetsune
32

I do wonder about the Left, given that there appears to be a poem by the late Lord Toshiyori:

さをしかのなくねは野べにきこゆれどなみだは床の物にぞ有りける

saoshika no
naku ne wa nobe ni
kikoyuredo
namida wa toko no
mono ni zo arikeru[1]
The stag’s
Sad bell upon the plain
I heard, yet
My tears my bed
Have covered.

I am a little leery of the Right’s central line, but overall it is not the case that this poem lacks conception, so it should win.


[1] KYS (3) III: 225 Composed on ‘listening to stags in a hut in the fields’. Also SZS V: 310 ‘Composed when he heard a stag belling while at a mountain retreat in Tanakami’. Also Sanboku kikashū 451 ‘Listening to stags in a hut in the fields’.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 13

Round One

Deer

Left (Tie)

さをしかも秋をかなしとおもへばやときしも声をたてて鳴くらん

saoshika mo
aki o kanashi to
omoeba ya
toki shimo koe o
tatete nakuran
Does the stag, too,
Autumn’s sadness
Feel?
That at this time, of all, his cry
Should ring out so…

Lord Shige’ie
25

Right

嶺になく鹿の音ちかくきこゆなり紅葉吹きおろす夜はのあらしに

mine ni naku
shika no ne chikaku
kikoyu nari
momiji fuki’orosu
yowa no arashi ni
Crying upon the peak
The stag’s bell close by
Sounds, carried
With blown down scarlet leaves
On the midnight storm…

Lord Tsunemori
26

The Left truly sounds as if it grasps the conception with its use of ‘of all, his cry’. The Right, too, is poetic with ‘blown down scarlet leaves’. There may be some who say that one should not compose using a subsidiary topic, yet in the poetry match held in Tentoku[i] and the poetry match held by Emperor Kazan[ii], this was judged not to be a fault.


[i] This was the Dairi uta’awase Tentoku yo-nen 内裏歌合 天徳四年 (‘Palace Poetry Match Tentoku 4’) held by Emperor Murakami on the 30th day of the Third Month, Tentoku 4 [28.4.960].

[ii] This was the Dairi uta’awase Kanna gan-nen 内裏歌合 寛和元年 (‘Palace Poetry Match Kanna 1’) held by Emperor Kazan the 10th day of the Eighth Month, Kanna 1 [28.8.985].

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 21

Round Twenty-One

Left (Win)

小倉山木木のもみぢのくれなゐはみねの嵐のおろすなりけり

ogurayama
kigi no momiji no
kurenai wa
mine no arashi no
orosu narikeri
On gloomy Mount Ogura
The leaves upon the trees,
So scarlet,
By the storm wind from the peak
Are tossed down.

Lord Kiyosuke
41

Right

ふかくあさきもみぢばながるあすか河ふちせは色にあらはれにけり

fukaku asaki
momijiba nagaru
asukagawa
fuchise wa iro ni
arawarenikeri
Across both depths and shallows
Flow the scarlet leaves
On the Asuka river,
Among the rapids and the pools
Have they appeared.

Shun’e
42

Neither of these is bad. The Right violates the five syllable pattern; the Left has no faults.

SKKS VIII: 789

Composed on the wind bringing fond thoughts of the past, in the autumn after his father, Hidemune, had passed away.

露をだに今は形見の藤ごろもあだにも袖を吹く嵐かな

tsuyu o dani
ima wa katami no
fujigoromo
ada ni mo sode o
fuku arashi kana
Even the dewfall, which
Now is a keepsake upon
My mourning robes is
Transient, so from my sleeves
‘Tis blown by the storming wind!

Fujiwara no Hideyoshi

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.