Tag Archives: bed

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 38

29th September 2025 temca Leave a comment

Round Thirteen

Left

しぐれもるたびねのとこははなぞめのたもとぞさきにまづかへりける

shigure moru
tabine no toko wa
hanazome no
tamoto zo saki ni
mazu kaerikeru

A shower drips upon me
As I doze upon my journey-bed;
Blossom-dyed,
My sleeves, before me,
Have first returned to what they were!

Masahira
75

Right (Win)

はなれゆくみやこをおもふひとりねのなみだをさそふはつしぐれかな

hanareyuku
miyako o omou
hitorine no
namida o sasou
hatsushigure kana

Distant has grown
The capital, but it fills my thoughts,
Sleeping solo,
My tears invited by
The first shower!

Chikashige
76

The configuration of the Left’s poem appears charming, but it would have sounded more so had there been a reason why ‘my sleeves, before’ had returned to the capital on the journey. The diction and conception of the Right’s poem, beginning with ‘distant has grown’ and leading to ‘tears invited’, is extremely pleasant. It seems the Right wins.

Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase kaō ni-nen

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 36

29th September 2025 temca Leave a comment

Round Eleven

Left (Win)

かりのいほはそそくしぐれもとまらねばつゆわけごろもほしぞかねつる

kari no io wa
sosoku shigure mo
tomaraneba
tsuyuwakegoromo
hoshi zo kanetsuru

Upon my crude hut,
Dripping, the showers, too,
Never cease, so
My dew-soaked garb
To dry is impossible!

Kyō
71

Right

さらぬだにたびねのとこはつゆけきにいかにせよとてうちしぐるらむ

saranu dani
tabine no toko wa
tsuyukeki ni
ika ni seyo tote
uchishigururamu

Even ‘twere not to be,
My journey-bed is
Drenched with dew, so
What am I to do,
Beneath these falling showers?

Suehiro
72

The Left has ‘dripping, the showers, too’, while the Right has ‘what am I to do’ and so forth—while neither of these is poor in terms of conception and diction, the initial section of the Right sounds extremely commonplace, thus the Left’s conception of agonizing over the being unable to dry dew-soaked garb is slightly superior in the current context.

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 268

9th August 2025 temca Leave a comment

むかしおもふ秋のね覚の床のうへにほのかにかよふ峰の松風

mukashi omou
aki no nezame no
toko no ue ni
honoka ni kayou
mine no matsukaze

Thoughts of bygone days
In autumn rouse me from my sleep
Across my bed
Flows faintly
The pine-wind off the peaks…

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta'awase

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 21

9th April 2025 temca Leave a comment

Round Nine

Left (Tie)

秋はぎを草の枕にむすびてや妻恋ひかねて鹿のふすらん

akihagi o
kusa no makura ni
musubite ya
tsuma koikanete
shika no fusuran

The autumn bush clover
For a grassy pillow
Has he woven—is that why
Unable to love his mate
The stag seems to lie?

Koreyuki
41

Right

妻こふる秋にしなればさをしかの床の山とてうちもふされじ

tsuma kouru
aki ni shi nareba
saoshika no
toko no yama tote
uchi mo fusareji

He yearns for his mate
In autumn, above all, so
In the stag’s
Bed among the mountains
He cannot lay him down, it seems.

Arifusa
42

The Left isn’t bad, but isn’t there Controller Kore’ie’s poem:

秋萩を草の枕にむすぶ夜はちかくもしかのこゑをきくかな

akihagi o
kusa no makura ni
musubu yo wa
chikaku mo shika no
koe o kiku kana

The autumn bush clover
For a grassy pillow
I weave tonight—
Close by, truly, a stag’s
Bell I hear! [1]

While there is this earlier example, neither core nor the conceptions of these poems are the same, and as the Right’s poem is not all that good, after careful consideration I make this a tie.

[1] On hearing a stag at his lodgings. KYS (3) III: 224

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta'awase

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 16

27th March 2025 temca Leave a comment

Round Four

Left

さをしかのなくねはよそにききつれど涙は袖の物にぞ有りける

saoshika no
naku ne wa yoso ni
kikitsuredo
namida wa sode no
mono ni zo arikeru

The stag’s
Sad bell in the distance
Did I hear, yet still
My tears my sleeves
Have covered.

Sadanaga
31

Right (Win)

山たかみおろすあらしやよわるらんかすかに成りぬさをしかの声

yama takami
orosu arashi ya
yowaruran
kasuka ni narinu
saoshika no koe

From the mountain’s heights
Descending, has the storm wind
Weakened?
Faintly comes
The stag’s bell.

Lord Suetsune
32

I do wonder about the Left, given that there appears to be a poem by the late Lord Toshiyori:

さをしかのなくねは野べにきこゆれどなみだは床の物にぞ有りける

saoshika no
naku ne wa nobe ni
kikoyuredo
namida wa toko no
mono ni zo arikeru[1]

The stag’s
Sad bell upon the plain
I heard, yet
My tears my bed
Have covered.

I am a little leery of the Right’s central line, but overall it is not the case that this poem lacks conception, so it should win.

[1] KYS (3) III: 225 Composed on ‘listening to stags in a hut in the fields’. Also SZS V: 310 ‘Composed when he heard a stag belling while at a mountain retreat in Tanakami’. Also Sanboku kikashū 451 ‘Listening to stags in a hut in the fields’.