When I had composed a large number of poems on Shintō themes.
かみつけのせたのあかぎのからやしろやまとにいかであとをたれけん
kamitsuke no seta no akagi no karayashiro yamato ni ikade ato o tareken
In Kamitsuke, At Seta lies Akagi’s Cathay-style shrine— Why, in the land of Yamato Might the Buddhas manifest there? [i]
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[i] Akagi Shrine (akagi jinja 赤城神社) lay (and still lies) on the banks of Lake Ōnuma 大沼 in Kōzuke (Kamitsuke) 上野 province (modern Gunma 群馬 prefecture). Under the belief that various Buddhist deities manifested themselves in Japan as Shintō kami in order to better provide salvation to the people there (honji suijaku-setsu 本地垂迹説) its principal deity, Akagi Daimyōjin 赤城大明神 was believed to be a manifestation of Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara (Senju kannon 千手觀音), Ākāśagarbha (Kokuzō bosatsu 虛空藏菩薩) and Kṣitigarbha (Jizō bosatsu 地藏菩薩). Sanetomo’s poem queries why, if the bodhisattvas have chosen to manifest as kami, they should do so at a shrine built in a foreign style.
[2] This poem was particularly highly evaluated and so is included in numerous other anthologies (Kokin rokujō I: 125), exemplary collections (Shinsen waka 2) and senka awase – contests assembled from prior poems (Shunzei sanjū roku nin uta’awase 61; Jidai fudō uta’awase 49).
Left and Right together: both tigers do not seem to emphasise anything in particular.
In judgement: both poems refer to ‘tigers’ (tora), with the Left having ‘a valley where tigers lie’ (tora fusu tani) and the Right ‘isles where tigers lie’ (tora fusu shima). These seem to be an attempt to differ from the standard ‘meadow’ (nobe). Saying ‘valley’ or ‘isles’ makes both poems sound modern. They are of the same quality.
The Gentlemen of the Right state: how can love be dangerous? The Gentlemen of the Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults to mention.
In judgement: saying that the ‘paths of love are, at the end’ (koiji no sue) dangerous is perfectly commonplace. ‘Is only a withered field of cogon grass’ (hito mo kareno no asajiwara) seems to simply have taken the poem ‘Sedge fields lie / Around the estate of Fushimi, / All long overgrown; / He who passed across them / Has left no tracks at all…’ and swapped in ‘mount who once did cross it’ (kayoishi koma). Changing a man into a mount is discomposing, indeed. Again, the Left should win.
On the conception of the beginning of spring, composed for a hundred poem sequence for the Lay Priest and former Regent and Chancellor, when he was Minister of the Right.
今日といへば大唐までもゆく春を都にのみと思ひけるかな
kyō to ieba
morokoshi made mo
yuku haru o
miyako ni nomi to
omoikeru kana
On this day, the spring that
Even unto Cathay
Will travel is
In the capital alone
I feel!
Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office Shunzei
皇太后宮大夫俊成
[One of] two poems composed at the farewell festivities at the house of Ōtomo no Kojihi, Captain of the Outer Palace Bodyguards, for Ōtomo no Komaro, who was going as deputy ambassador on an embassy to China.
韓国に 行き足らはして帰り来むますら健男に御酒奉る
karakuni ni
yukitarapasite
kaperikomu
masura takewo ni
miki tatematuru
In Cathay when
All you have done
Return to us
O mighty man
To whom I proffer this esteemed draught!
