三熊野のうらのはまゆふいはずとも思ふ心の数をしらなん
| mikumano no ura no hamayū iwazu tomo omou kokoro no kazu o shiranan | At fair Kumano, Lilies on the beach Say nothing, yet The yearnings in my heart for you In number I would have you know![1] |
466
[1] An allusive variation on: [One of] Four poems by Hitomaro, Lord Kakinomoto. み熊野の浦の濱木綿百重なす心は思へど直に逢はぬかも mikumano no / ura no hamayū / momoe nasu / kokoro wa omoedo / tada ni awanu kamo ‘At fair Kumano / Lilies on the beach / A hundred deep / My heart’s yearning, but / Never will we meet.’ (MYS IV: 496)
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.
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
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).
