Tag Archives: blossoms

Teiji-in uta’awase 05

Left (Win)

はるがすみたちしかくせばやまざくらひとしれずこそちりぬべらなれ

harugasumi
tachishi kakuseba
yamazakura
hito shirezu koso
chirinuberanare
If the spring haze
Has risen to conceal
The mountain cherries,
Then, indeed, will no one know
When they have seemed to scatter!

Tsurayuki
9

Right

たのまれぬはなのこころとおもへばやちらぬさきよりうぐひすのなく

tanomarenu
hana no kokoro to
omoeba ya
chiranu saki yori
uguisu no naku
Untrustworthy are
The blossoms’ hearts
I do think, so
While they are unscattered
Will the warbler sing.

Okikaze
10[i]

Both of these are the same—they tie.[ii]


[i] This poem is included in Shinshūishū (XI: 1549), attributed to Okikaze, with the headnote, ‘From Former Emperor Uda’s Poetry Contest’. It is also included twice in Kokin rokujō (I: 31) and (VI: 4395): in both cases the poem is attributed to Okikaze, but the first instance lacks a headnote, while the second is classified as a ‘Warbler’ poem. Finally, it is also included in Mandaishū (II: 254), again attributed to Okikaze, but this time with the headnote, ‘Topic unknown’.

[ii] Given that the Left’s poem here is marked as winning, presumably Uda means that both poems are equally worthy of a win—that is, that this is a yoki ji, a ‘tie of quality’.

Teishi-in ominaeshi uta’awase 19

なにしおへばあはれとおもふををみなへしたれをうしとかまだきうつろふ

na ni shi oeba
aware to omou o
ominaeshi
tare o ushi to ka
madaki utsurou
Bearing such a name,
She is dear, indeed, I feel, that
Maidenflower, but
Who is it that she does despise so,
That she fades so swiftly?

Mareyo
37

ちるはるをみなへしはなはあき風のふかむことをばくるしからじな

chiru haru o
mina heshi hana wa
akikaze no
fukamu koto oba
kurushikaraji na
Scattered in springtime
Have all the blossoms, so
When the autumn wind
Begins to blow
She suffers not, I think…

Motoyuki
38

GSS XV: 1077

When Ki no Tomonori had not yet been bestowed with any official position, in connection with this when he was asked how old he was and replied that he was forty.

今までになどかは花のさかずしてよそとせあまり年ぎりはする

ima made ni
nado ka Fa Fana no
sakazusite
yoso tose amari
tosigiri Fa suru
Up to this moment
Why is it that blossoms
Have yet to bloom?
After as much as forty years
Absent a year they are…

The Posthumous Chancellor

Sagyokushū II: 325-326

Round 8

Left

花の色はかすみのひまにほのみえて山のはにほふ春の暁

hana no iro wa
kasumi no hima ni
honomiete
yama no ha niou
haru no akebono
The blossoms’ hues
Between the shifting haze
I briefly glimpse, and
The mountains’ edges glow
With the dawn in springtime.

325

Right

あだし夜の花にとききてゆく雁の名残もいとど有明のそら

adashiyo no
hana ni toki kite
yuku kari no
nagori mo itdodo
ariake no sora
To fleeting night’s
Blossoms has the time come, and
The departing geese leave
A keepsake more brief
In the skies at dawn.

326

This round, again, it seems difficult to distinguish between the the two poems.

Former Emperor Gosukō (1372-1456)
後崇光院

Shūgyokushū 1916

Blossom falls wordlessly from the trees, while the waters flow into the souless pond.

はなも水も心なぎさやいかならむ庭に浪たつはるの木のもと

hana mo mizu mo
kokoro nagisa ya
ikanaramu
niwa ni nami tatsu
haru no ko no moto
Both the blossoms and the waters, too,
Touch the shores of my heart—
Why should that be?
At my estate the breaking waves
Of spring wash the bases of the trees.

Jien

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 75

Left

をとめ子がひかげのうへに降る雪は花のまがふにいづれたがへり

otomego ga
hikage no ue ni
furu yuki wa
hana no magau ni
izure tagaeri
Maidens
In the sunlight, with
The falling snow;
Such a blending of blossoms—
How do they differ?

145

Left

かきくらし散る花とのみふる雪は冬のみやこの雲のちるかと

kakikurashi
chiru hana to nomi
furu yuki wa
fuyu no miyako no
kumo no chiru ka to
Quickly darkening with
Scattered blossom that is simply
Falling snow,
Is the capital in winter
Strewn with cloud?

146

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 69

Left

草も木も枯行く冬の宿なれば雪ならずしてとふ人ぞなき

kusa mo ki mo
kareyuku fuyu no
yado nareba
yuki narazushite
tou hito zo naki
Both grass and trees
Wither away with winter
At my home, so
Even without the snow
No one comes to call.

135

Right

ふる雪はえだにしばしもとまらなむ花も紅葉も絶えてなきまは

furu yuki wa
eda ni shibashi mo
tomaranamu
hana mo momiji mo
taete naki ma wa
The falling snow
Upon the branches for a while
Does rest, when
Neither blossoms nor scarlet leaves
Are there at all…

136

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 34

Left

いつの間に花かれにけむながくだにありせば夏のかげとみましを

itsu no ma ni
hana karenikemu
nagaku dani
ariseba natsu no
kage to mimashi o
In an instant
The blossoms seems to wither!
If but longer
They were here, summer’s
Shape I would see in them…

66

Right

幾千たび鳴きかへるらむ足引の山ほととぎす声はわすれて

ikuchi tabi
nakikaeruramu
ashihiki no
yamahototogisu
koe wa wasurete
How many thousand times,
Does he return to sing?
The leg-wearying
Mountain cuckoo,
Forgetting his song…

67