Round Thirteen

Left (Tie)

われもいかでよにながらへてすみよしのまつのちとせのゆくすゑもみむ

ware mo ikade yo ni nagaraete sumiyoshi no matsu no chitose no yukusue mo mimu

Somehow, I, too, Would endure in this world, that Sumiyoshi’s Pine’s thousand years End I would see!

Masahira
125

Right

たとへけむなみはわがみにあらはれぬこぎゆくふねのあとはほかかは

tatoekemu nami wa wagami ni arawarenu kogiyuku fune no ato wa hoka ka wa

Might I compare The waves, which on my sorry self Have made their mark, with A boat rowing out, leaving A wake, or if not that then what? [1]

Chikashige
126

The Left seems to be imagining something very unrealistic. The Right has the poem ‘To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking’ in mind, and appears to have the charming conception of sorrowing over the face of Grand Duke Jiang appearing in the waves on the Wei River, but ‘if not that then what?’ sounds a bit overblown. With that being said, the Left feels like a plea for good fortune, and the Right evokes impermanence. The matters are only distantly connected, and thus in terms of faults and merits they are equal.

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[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. 世の中をなににたとへむあさぼらけこぎゆく舟のあとのしら浪 yo no naka o / nani ni tatoemu / asaborake / kogiyuku fune no / ato no shiranami ‘This mundane world: / To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking, / A boat rows out / Whitecaps in its wake.’ Novice Mansei (SIS XX: 1327)