Sent to a lady’s house.
あづまぢのさのの舟ばしかけてのみおもひわたるをしる人のなさ
| adumadi no sano no Funabasi kakete nomi omoFiwataru wo siru Fito no nasa | On eastern roads At Sano, the pontoon bridge Simply stretches out; That she is ever in my thoughts— There’s no one knows at all… |
Lord Minamoto no Hitoshi
Left
うかれめの浮かれて歩く旅やかた住みつきがたき恋もする哉
| ukareme no ukarete ariku tabiyakata sumitsukigataki koi mo suru kana | Player girls do Drift around The inn-houses; As unsettled Is the love they make… |
Lord Suetsune
1157
Right (Win)
東路やゆききの人にうちとけて宿かりそめの契すらしも
| azumaji ya yukiki no hito ni uchitokete yado karisome no chigiri sura shimo | Along the Eastern Roads Folk go back and forth, and To relieve them, the girls Find brief lodging and even make brief Vows of love… |
The Supernumerary Master of the Empress’ Household Office
1158
The Right state: the Left’s poem has no matters we can criticize. The Left state: the conception of Love in the Right’s poem is vague.
In judgement: The Left’s poem seem certainly to capture the conceptions of both Love and player-girls. ‘Even’ (sura shimo) in the Right’s final section, sounds rather abrupt and portentous, but the initial section is certainly elegant. Thus, the Right should win.
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.
Composed in the conception of travel, when he presented a hundred poem sequence.
東路の野島が埼の浜風に我が紐ゆひし妹がかほのみ面影に見ゆ
| azumadi no nozima ga saki no Famakaze ni wa ga Fimo yuFisi imo ga kaFo nomi omokage ni miyu |
On Eastern roads At Nojima Point In the breeze from off the beach: My belt was tied By my darling, her face, A vision, appears before me… |
Master of the Left Capital Office, Akisuke
左京大夫顕輔
He had been secretly seeing the lady who had been sent to be the Ise Virgin, but when this became known to His Majesty, he put a guard upon her, and it was no longer possible to visit in secret, so he composed.
逢坂は東路とこそきゝしかど心盡しのせきにぞありける
| aFusaka Fa adumadi to koso kikisikado kokoro dukusi no seki ni zo arikeru |
Meeting Hill lies Upon the road to the East I had heard, and yet My heart is exhausted by The barrier here! |
Master of the Left Capital Office, Michimasa
左京大夫通雅
He had accompanied his father to Tōtōmi province, then, after some years had passed, when he was sent to be Governor of Shimotsuke, he composed this at the bridge at Hamana.
東路の浜名の橋を来てみれば昔恋しき渡りなりけり
| adumadi no Famana no Fasi wo kitemireba mukasi koFisiki watarinarikeri |
Along eastern roads To the bridge at Hamana Have I come and now I see Sights I loved long ago Spread out before me… |
Ōe no Hirotsune (?-?1089)
大江広経