なよ竹のちぢのさ枝のはは枝のそのふしふしによよはこもれり
| nayotake no chiji no sa’eda no haha’eda no sono fushifushi ni yoyo wa komoreri | The young bamboo has A thousand, thousand branches Dividing from each other, All of their joints Encompass many ages. |
666
Tag Archives: fushi
Entō ōn’uta’awase 38
Round Thirty-Eight
Left
今更にふしもさだめぬ鹿の音よ木葉の数のつもるよごとに
| ima sara ni fushi mo sadamenu shika no ne yo ko no ha no kazu no tsumoru goto ni | At around this time, With his bedding undecided, The stag bells out! Just as the leaves’ from on the trees numbers Do mount up… |
Shō
75
Right (Win)
木葉ちる夜半の嵐の月影に心すみてや鹿も鳴くらん
| ko no ha chiru yowa no arashi no tsukikage ni kokoro sumite ya shika mo nakuran | Leaves scatter from the trees In the midnight storm In the moonlight From his wild and earthy thoughts Does the stag, too, cry out? |
Nagatsuna
76
The Left’s ‘just as the leaves from on the trees numbers do mount up’ at night and so forth, appears to be a novel style, yet the Right poem sounds more gorgeous, so it wins.
SKKS XI: 1049
Topic unknown.
難波潟みじかき蘆のふしのまも逢はでこの世をすぐしてよとや
| naniwagata mijikaki ashi no fushi no ma mo awade kono yo o sugushiteyo to ya | In the Naniwa tidelands, Brief, indeed, are the reeds’ Span between the knots upon their stalks, but Such times in this world without meeting you— Are you really telling me to just go on like that? |
Ise
Eikyū hyakushu 585
Eikyū hyakushu 431
Love Interrupted by a Single Night 隔一夜恋
笛竹のあなわづらはし一夜をもこぬをつらさのふしになせとや
| fuetake no ana wazurawashi hito yo o mo konu o tsurasa no fushi ni nase to ya | A bamboo flute – Unplayed, does suffer so; Even the space of a single night He does not come, does wrench and Knot – ‘Lie down and sleep!’ should I say that? |
Toshiyori
Love IX: 5
Left
笛竹のただ人ふしを契とてよよの恨を残せとや思ふ
| fuetake no tada hitofushi o chigiri tote yoyo no urami o nokose to ya omou |
A bamboo flute has But a single joint – and for but one night Did we join together, so Night after night of despair Did you think to leave behind? |
Lord Sada’ie
1089
Right (Win)
はるばると浪路分来る笛竹をわが恋妻と思はましかば
| harubaru to namiji wakekuru fuetake o wa ga koizuma to omowamashikaba |
Along the distant Sea-lanes, forging, came A bamboo flute: My own true love – If only I could think it that! |
The Supernumerary Master of the Empress’ Household Office
1090
The Right state: the Left’s poem lacks any faults to mention. The Left state: the Right’s poem has not faults to point out.
In judgement: ‘night after night of despair’ (yoyo no urami o) in the Left’s poem sounds profound, but in actual fact is quite prosaic. In the Right’s poem, ‘sea-lanes, forging, came a bamboo flute’ (namiji wakekuru takefue o) has, I think, the contemporary conception of ‘it has come forging through many waves’. It seems evocative. Thus, the Right must win.