Round Eleven
The Beginning of Summer[1]
Left (Tie)
なくこゑはまだきかねどもせみのはのうすきころもをたちぞきてける
| naku koe wa mada kikanedomo semi no ha no usuki koromo wa tachi zo kitekeru | Their buzzing song Is not yet to be heard, yet Cicada wing Light clothing Has been cut to wear today. |
Yoshinobu
22[2]
Right
夏ごろもたちいづるけふは花ざくらかたみのいろもぬぎやかふらん
| natsugoromo tachi’izuru kyō wa hanazakura katami no iro mo nugi ya kauran | Summer garb: Cut out from today, departing The blossom of the cherries’ Hues—a keepsake—, too, Will I put off and change? |
Nakatsukasa
23
The Left’s poem gives the impression of the beginning of summer, but the Right’s ‘Sewn from today, departing’ suggests that it is the year that is doing so. In addition, it seems to use ‘put off and change’, and so sounds as if time has passed more swiftly than in the Left’s poem. Thus, because the poems’ quality is about the same, I make this a tie.
[1] Shuka 首夏. This Sinitic expression was also used to refer to the the Fourth Month.
When he was travelling to perform his devotions, he rested beneath some blossoming cherries.
このもとをすみかとすればおのづからはなみる人となりぬべきかな
| ko no moto wo sumika to sureba onodukara Fana miru Fito to narinubeki kana | When beneath the trees My dwelling place is, then Without meaning to A blossom-viewing man Have I become, alas! |
His Majesty, Former Emperor Kazan
When he presented a fifty-poem sequence.
たづねきて花にくらせる木のまよりまつとしもなき山のはの月
| tazunekite hana ni kuraseru ko no ma yori matsu to shimo naki yama no ha no tsuki | I came searching Blossom all day long Between the trees, when Though I’d not awaited it, saw The moon upon the mountains’ edge. |
Fujiwara no Masatsune
Round Five
Fresh bracken
Left
かりびとのとやまをこめてやきしよりしたもえいづるのべのさわらび
| karibito no toyama o komete yakishi yori shita moe’izuru nobe no sawarabi | Since hunters All the nearby mountains Have burned Budding beneath is Fresh bracken in the meadows. |
Sagami
9
Right (Win)
花をだにをりてかへらんさわらびはをぎのやけのにいまぞおひいづる
| hana o dani orite kaeran sawarabi wa ogi no yakeno ni ima zo oi’izuru | At least some blossom Let us pick and then return! Fresh bracken On the burned plain of cogon grass Is now a’sprouting! |
Jijū no menoto
10
‘Fresh bracken’ is something which folk of old referred to in various ways, and the latter poem is in keeping with this. ‘At least some blossom / Let us pick and then return!’ is an extremely charming mental image, if one had simply seen it budding, one would wonder why the poet has not sought out some other location before returning home. Moving on to ‘Since hunters / All the nearby mountains’, this is an overly hackneyed, and thus distasteful, expression like ‘on eastern roads’, so the latter poem is superior, isn’t it.
While gazing at the blossom, after Middle Counsellor Atsutada has passed away, and various people had gone to a mountain retreat at Nishisakamoto on Mount Hiei.
いにしへはちるをや人の惜みけん花こそ今は昔こふらし
| inisiFe Fa tiru wo ya Fito no osimiken Fana koso ima Fa mukasi koFurasi | Long ago Their scattering would he Ever regret, but Now, ‘tis the blossom That seems to long for bygone days. |
The Ichijō Regent
[One of] Six poems new poems to harmonise and follow those on plum blossom, when he was at Dazai.
民布由都芸 芳流波吉多礼登 烏梅能芳奈 君尓之安良祢婆 遠久人毛奈之
みふゆつぎ はるはきたれど うめのはな きみにしあらねば おくひともなし
| mipuyu tugi paru pa kitaredo ume no pana kimi ni si araneba oku pito mo nasi | After deep winter’s passing Spring has come, and yet The plum blossom Is not you, my love, so There’s no one to beckon me here… |
Ōtomo no Fumimochi
