aware | Waka Poetry

Round Ten

Left (Tie)

夜もすがら妻こふるまにさをしかのめさへあはでや鳴きあかすらん

yomosugara
tsuma kouru ma ni
saoshika no
me sae awade ya
naki’akasuran

All night long,
Yearning for his mate,
Does the stag
Fail to close his eyes,
Belling until the dawn?

Mikawa
43

Right

独のみみねのをしかのなくこゑにあはれ吹きそふ風の音かな

hitori nomi
mine no oshika no
naku koe ni
aware fukisou
kaze no oto kana

A single, solitary,
Stag from the peak
Belling out
Laces sadness into the gusting
Sound of the wind!

Kojijū
44

The Left’s ‘fail to close his eyes’ is a commonly utilised viewpoint, while the Right’s ‘lacing sadness into the gusts’ is unsatisfactory—simply ‘laced’ would be preferable. Nevertheless, neither of these are particularly significant faults, so these should tie.

Round Eight

Left (Tie)

うづら鳴く遠里小野の小萩はら心なき身も過ぎうかりけり

uzura naku
tōsato ono no
kohagiwara
kokoronaki mi mo
sugi’ukarikeri

Quails cry from
Tōsato plain’s
Bush-clover groves—
Even one as insensitive as I
Finds it hard to pass them by.

Kenshō Sukenokimi
15

Right

あきの野の花に心をそめしよりくさかやひめもあはれとぞ思ふ

aki no no no
hana ni kokoro o
someshi yori
kusakayahime mo
aware to zo omou

Since the autumn meadows’
Blooms my heart
Did fill, for
Kusakayahime
Fondness, I feel!

Tōren
16

As for the Left, if one is composing about bush-clover groves, then I would want the poem to mention Miyagi Plain. As for the Right’s Kusakayahime, I wondered if she appeared in the Chronicles of Japan, but in that work you have Izanagi-no-miko and Izanami-no-miko, who wed and create the first land, Akitsushima, and then many provinces, mountains, rivers and seas and thus trees and plants, too. It further states that the primordial tree was Kukunochi and the primordial plant was Kayanohime. The conception of the Right’s poem does not differ from this, yet it continues to mention Kusakayahime, which is unclear. I get the feeling that this poem was composed with the works composed for the banquet held for the completion of the Chronicles of Japan in mind, which refer to each and every spring and the ancient Kayanohime, but even these poems did not differ in conception from that of the main work. It’s impossible to pick a loser or winner.