Tag Archives: beach

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 48

Round Twenty-Three

Left (Win)

もしほぐさしきつのうらのねざめにはしぐれにのみやそではぬれける

moshiogusa
shikitsu no ura no
nezame ni wa
shigure ni nomi ya
sode wa nurekeru
Salt-seaweed grasses grow
On the beach at Shikitsu where
On waking is it
By the showers alone
That my sleeves have dampened?

Dharma Master Shun’e
95

Right

たびねにははにふのこやのいたびさししぐれのするぞさやにきこゆる

tabine ni wa
hanyū no koya no
itabisashi
shigure no suru zo
saya ni kikoyuru
Sleeping on my travels
On an ochre clay hut’s
Veranda boards
The falling of a shower
Sounds striking!

Lord Sanekuni
96

The Left’s ‘Salt-seaweed grasses grow / On the beach at Shikitsu’ is certainly particularly charming, and really what one should say. The concluding section’s ‘By the showers alone?’, too, does not seem simplistic in conception and diction. As for the Right, while it is not the case that at ‘an ochre clay hut’s…a shower..would sound striking’ has no point to it, the Left’s poem is particularly pleasant. Thus, it wins.

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 16

Left (Tie)

すみよしのまつのこずゑにふるゆきのつもりまさるとみゆる月かげ

sumiyoshi no
matsu no kozue ni
furu yuki no
tsumorimasaru to
miyuru tsukikage
Sumiyoshi’s
Pines’ treetops have
Fallen snow upon them,
Piled even higher,
It seems in the moonlight.

Lord Taira no Hiromori
Senior Assistant Minister of Justice
Meagre Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade[i]
31

Right

すみよしのはままつがえをこすなみに月のしらゆふかけそへてけり

sumiyoshi no
hamamatsu ga e o
kosu nami ni
tsuki no shirayū
kakesoetekeri
At Sumiyoshi
The pine trees on the beach are
Washed by waves, with
The moon’s sacred streamers
Hung, trailing, upon them.

Grand Dharma Master Chikyō[ii]
32

Both Left and Right lack any particular defects and sound elegant—they tie.


[i] Jūgoige-shu gyōbu taifu Taira ason Hiromori 従五位下守刑部大輔平朝臣広盛

[ii] Daihōshi Chikyō大法師智経

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 01

Round One

The Moon over the Shrine

Left (Win)   

ふりにけるまつものいはばとひてましむかしもかくやすみのえの月

furinikeru
matsu mono’iwaba
toitemashi
mukashi mo kaku ya
suminoe no tsuki
Could these ancient
Pines but speak,
I would ask them
In ancient times was it so?
The moon o’er Suminoe…

Lord Fujiwara no Sanesada
Senior Second Rank[i]
1

Right

こころなきこころもなほぞつきはつる月さへすめるすみよしのはま

kokoronaki
kokoro mo nao zo
tsukihatsuru
tsuki sae sumeru
sumiyoshi no hama
Even my insensitive
Heart is still
Quite exhausted,
So clear the moon
Above the beach at Sumiyoshi…

Lord Fujiwara no Toshinari
Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office
Master of the Right Capital Office
Exalted Senior Third Rank
2

The Left poem’s conception and configuration, saying ‘In ancient times was it so? / The moon o’er Suminoe’ is truly charming! While I am accustomed to hearing conceptions similar to that expressed in the initial line, I have no recollection of this exact turn of phrase and, in addition, leading with ‘Could these ancient’ and continuing with ‘Pines but speak’ is a conception which is rare, indeed. In the poem of the Right, on the moon over the beach before the shrine, I have quite exhausted my own meagre conceptions and, feel that my scanty words are not enough, I think. The Left’s poem is particularly fine, so it should win.


[i] Shōni’i Fujiwara ason Sanesada正二位藤原朝臣実定 (1139-1191):Most frequently referred to today as the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left (Gotokudaiji no sadaijin 後徳大寺左大臣), Sanesada had an extensive court career, culminating in appointment as Minister of the Left in 1189, a position he was to hold for only two years, before illness forced him to surrender it in the middle of 1191, a few months before his death. Sanesada skillfully negotiated the fraught political environment following the Genpei War (1180-1185) and is known to have had the trust of Minamoto no Yoritomo 源頼朝 (1147-1199), the first Kamakura shogun. He was well-known as a poet, participating in many uta’awase, including this one, and has 73 poems in imperial anthologies, beginning with Senzaishū. His most famous poem today is: Composed in the conception of hearing a cuckoo at dawn. 時鳥鳴きつるかたをながむればたゞ有明の月ぞのこれる hototogisu / nakitsuru kata o / nagamureba / tada ariake no / tsuki zo nokoreru ‘A cuckoo / Calls from yonder— / Gazing there, / Only the daybreak / Moon remains.’ (SZS III: 161), which was included in Hyakunin isshu (81).

Entō ōn’uta’awase 7

Round Seven

Left (Tie)

けさはまたそれともみえず淡路島霞のしたに浦風ぞ吹く

kesa wa mata
sore tomo miezu
awajishima
kasumi no shita ni
urakaze zo fuku
This morning, once again,
I cannot that clearly see
Awaji Isle, but
Beneath the haze
The winds are blowing o’er the beach!

Chikanari, Ranked without Office
13

Right

春霞なびく朝けの塩風にあらぬけぶりや浦に立つらん

harugasumi
nabiku asake no
shiokaze ni
aranu keburi ya
ura ni tatsuran
Spring haze
Trails over with the morn—
Salt-fire breezes
It is not, yet does smoke
Seem to rise across the bay?

Ie’kiyo, Ranked without Office
14

Both Left and Right don’t seem bad. I make them a tie.

SKKS X: 945

Topic unknown.

かぜさむみ伊勢のはま荻分行けばころもかりがねなみになくなり

kaze samumi
ise no hama ogi
wakeyukeba
koromo kari ga ne
nami ni naku nari
The wind’s so chill, as
Through the silver grass upon the beach at Ise
I forge my way, that
I’d borrow a robe with goose cries
Sounding ‘cross the waves!

Former Middle Counsellor Masafusa

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