Tag Archives: cruel girl

Nishinomiya uta’awase 15

Cogon grass and the Same

Round Fifteen

Left

うき人を驚かすべき方ぞなきうらやましきは荻の上風

ukibito o
odorokasubeki
kata zo naki
urayamashiki wa
ogi no uwakaze
That cruel girl:
To make her notice me
I have no way at all!
How I envy
The wind blowing o’er the cogon grass!

Lecturer Kakuga
29

Right

荻原やよかぜぞつらき音せずはねてこそ人を夢にみましか

ogiwara ya
yokaze zo tsuraki
oto sezu wa
nete koso hito o
yume ni mimashika
O, plain of cogon grass,
How unkind is the wind tonight!
For without your sound, then
Indeed, I would sleep that she
I would glimpse within my dreams…

The Head
30

The conception of love sounds superior at present in envying the ‘wind blowing o’er the cogon grass’ than it does in the ‘unkind is the wind tonight’.

Nishinomiya uta’awase 12

Round Twelve

Left

あふことをいなみ野に咲く女郎花をらぬものゆゑ袖ぞ露けき

au koto o
inamino ni saku
ominaeshi
oranu mono yue
sode zo tsuyukeki
A meeting she
Declines—blooming upon Inami Plain,
A maidenflower
I have not picked, yet
How dew-drenched my sleeves!

Taiyu no Suke
23

Right

うき人の心なりせばをみなへし吹くとも風になびかざらまし

ukibito no
kokoro nariseba
ominaeshi
fuku tomo kaze ni
nabikazaramashi
That cruel girl’s
Heart did they but have, then
The maidenflowers,
With the gusting of the wind
Would not bend at all, no doubt…

Tadasue
24

‘With the gusting of the wind’ and so forth sounds more in keeping with the topic at present than ‘blooming upon Inami Plain, / A maidenflower’.

Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 34

Round Ten

Left (T – Tie; M – Win)

憂き人をわすれはてなで忘川なにとて絶えず恋わたるらん

ukibito o
wasurehatenade
wasuregawa
nani tote taezu
koi wataruran
That cruel girl
I am unable to ever forget,
Even by Wasure—Forgetting—River
Why is it that endlessly
My love continues on?

Lord Tadafusa
67

Right

恋すてふこひはこれにて限りてん後にもかかる物をこそおもへ

koisu chō
koi wa kore nite
kagiriten
nochi ni mo kakaru
mono o koso omoe
Love, they say,
Of love right here
Let’s make an end!
But later, still such
Painful feelings will I have…

Lord Munekuni
68

Toshiyori states: the first poem has nothing special about it—poems of this quality are unremarkable. The later poem says, ‘Of love right here / Let’s make an end!’—is it saying that the poet will fall in love with someone else? It’s difficult to say that he’d do that from the following day. It’s vague and doesn’t sound clear. These poems are of the same quality, aren’t they.

Mototoshi states: while neither of these has any faults, the Right’s ‘right here let’s make an end’ seems particularly undesirable. ‘Why is it that endlessly’ is slightly more poetic in the current context, I feel.