Composed in the Tenth Month of Jōhō 3 [1076] when the reigning emperor had made a progress to the River Ōi to go hunting.
大井川ふるきながれを尋ねきて嵐のやまの紅葉をぞ見る
| oFowigaFa Furuki nagare wo tadunekite arasi no yama no momidi wo zo miru |
The River Ōi: This ancient flow Have I come to visit, and Around the mount of storms, Scarlet leaves I see! |
Emperor Shirakawa
白河院
Left (Tie).
故郷を出でしにまさる涙かな嵐の枕夢に別れて
| furusato ni ideshi ni masaru namida kana arashi no makura yume ni wakarete |
My home I left in floods Of tears; The wild wind round my pillow Breaks us apart in dreams… |
Lord Sada’ie
899
Right.
東路の夜半の眺めを語らなん都の山にかゝる月影
| azumaji no yowa no nagame o kataranan miyako no yama ni kakaru tsukikage |
Upon the eastern roads All night I turn my gaze – Tell him that, O moonlight, sinking Toward the mountains round the capital! |
Nobusada
900
Both Left and Right say they find no faults.
In judgement: the Left starts with ‘My home I left in floods’ (furusato ni ideshi ni masaru) and concludes with ‘the wild wind round my pillow breaks us apart in dreams’ (arashi no makura yume ni wakarete) – this is a form of words the quality of which I am entirely unable to convey with my own clumsy expressions, but the Right’s ‘O moonlight, sinking toward the mountains round the capital’ (miyako no yama ni kakaru tsukikage) is awash with a sense of tears, so it is most unclear which should win or lose. Both truly seem to reflect the conception of this topic ‘Love and Travel’ well. The poems have been so good every round that my brush is drenched with this old man’s tears, and I can find no other way to express it.
いざさらは木の下道はよきてゆかむ嵐に絶へぬしづりひまなし
| iza saraba ko no shitamichi wa yokite yukamu arashi ni taenu shizuri hima nashi | So, then, so be it! The path beneath the trees I’ll avoid, as I go For unable to stand the storm, There’s no space between bent branches! |
Left (Win).
名に立てる音羽の瀧も音にのみ聞くより袖の濡るゝ物かは
| na ni tateru otowa no taki mo oto ni nomi kiku yori sode no nururu mono ka wa |
The name is known: Otowa Falls Sounds forth; and just Hearing that Is enough to soak my sleeves? Surely not! |
631
Right.
鹿の音も嵐にたぐふ鐘の音も聞くよりこそは袖は濡れしか
| shika no ne mo arashi no taguu kane no oto mo kiku yori koso wa sode wa nureshika |
The braying of the stags, and With the storm wind The tolling bells: Hearing alone Does soak my sleeves. |
632
The Gentlemen of the Right state: there is nothing worth mentioning in the Left’s poem. The Gentlemen of the Left state: using ne (‘braying’) and oto (‘sound’) in the same poem is a fault [yamai].
Shunzei’s judgement: Both poems are tasteful in form [utazama wa yū] , but the Right’s does contain a fault, as the Left have stated. Thus, the Left should win.
Left (Win).
宿ごとに絶えぬ朝餉の煙さへ冬の氣色はさびしかりけり
| yadogoto ni taenu asake no kemuri sae fuyu no keshiki wa sabishikarikeri |
From every house Unending is the breakfasts’ Smoke – and even that Makes a winter scene All the more lonely. |
543
Right.
朝まだき嵐は庭を渡れども雪には跡もつかぬ也けり
| asa madaki arashi wa niwa o wataredomo yuki ni wa ato mo tsukanu narikeri |
Early in the morning The storm wind, o’er my garden Gusts, yet Upon the fallen snow no trace It leaves. |
544
The Right say the Left’s poem ‘isn’t bad’ [ashikarazu]. The Left say the Right’s poem is ‘commonplace’ [tsune no koto nari].
Shunzei’s judgement: Although the Left’s ‘unending is the breakfasts’ smoke – and even that’ (taenu asake no kemuri sae) is lacking in poetic qualities [utashina no naku wa haberedo], the gentlemen of the Right have judged it not to be bad. As for the Right, if a storm blows through a garden, even if there is no snow, surely there would be some trace of it, wouldn’t there? The Left should win.
Left (Win).
風寒み今日も霙の降る里は吉野の山の雪げなりけり
| kaze samumi kyō mo mizore no furu sato wa yoshino no yama no yukige narikeri |
A chill breeze brings Sleet, today, Falling as on the ancient estate on Yoshino mountain Did snows fall once… |
517
Right.
嵐吹く木葉こきまぜ霙降りさびしかりける山の奧かな
| arashi fuku konoha kokimaze mizore furi sabishikarikeru yama no oku kana |
The storm wind blows Leaves mixed in with Falling sleet; How lonely it is Here within the mountains… |
518
Neither team finds any fault with the other’s poem this round.
Shunzei’s judgement: The Left’s ‘Sleet, today, falling as on the ancient estate’ (kyō mo mizore no furu sato wa), preceding ‘on Yoshino mountain did snows fall once’, reflects the conception of ‘Where once I lived, to the mount of Yoshino was so close’ (Furusato Fa yosino no yama si tikakereba) and seems splendid [ito yoroshiku miehabere]. The Right’s ‘How lonely it is here within the mountains’ (sabishikarikeru yama no oku kana) as a final section is most acceptable in terms of style [mottomo shokisubeki no tei], but the initial ‘leaves mixed in’ (konoha kokimaze) sounds as if this had been done with some human hand. Thus, the Left with matched initial and final sections, must win.