Tag Archives: girl

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 29

Round Twenty-Nine

Left (Win)

君やあらぬ我が身やあらぬおぼつかなたのめしことのみなかはりぬる

kimi ya aranu
wa ga mi ya aranu
obotsukana
tanomeshi koto no
mina kawarinuru
Aren’t you who you once were?
Aren’t I who I was then?
How strange that
All we trusted in
Has changed.

Shun’e
57

Right

恋ひしなん命ぞをしきつれもなき人にしも身をかへんねたさに

koishinan
inochi zo oshiki
tsure mo naki
hito ni shimo mi o
kaen netasa ni
That I would die of love
Makes me regret my life!
But for that cruel
Girl should I
Exchange myself—exasperating!

Yorisuke

58

I feel the left is old-fashioned, isn’t it? And yet, it is not without feeling. The Right does not have a poor conception, but its diction is insufficient.

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 26

Round Twenty-Six

Left

恋ひしなんいのちを誰にゆづりおきてつれなき人のはてをみせまし

koishinan
inochi o tare ni
yuzuri’okite
tsurenaki hito no
hate o misemashi
Likely dying of love,
My life, to whom should I
Consign?
That cruel girl’s
Ending—would that show it to her?

Shun’e

51

Right (Win)

つれもなき人はおもひもすてられでうき身のみこそなげまほしけれ

tsure mo naki
hito wa omoi mo
suterarede
ukimi no mi koso
nagemahoshikere
So cruel is
That girl, but my passion for her
I cannot abandon;
It is my pitiful self that
I would wish to throw away!

Kenshō

52

The Left isn’t bad, but it’s a bit cliched. As for the Right, having both ‘abandon’ and ‘throw away’ could be a fault and yet the conception of one ‘abandoning passion’ is different. Whichever way you look at it, it wins.

Nihon shoki 67

A poem composed by Emperor Ingyō after spending the night with Princess Sotōri.

波那具波辞 佐区羅能梅涅 許等梅涅麼 波椰区波梅涅孺 和我梅豆留古羅

hana guwashi
sakura no mede
koto medeba
hayaku wa medezu
wa ga mezuru kora
So fair the bloom,
I love the cherry blossom, and
Just the same do I love her—sad—that
Earlier I did not love her
That girl I love now.

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 85

Left

つれもなき人をこふとて山びこのこたふるまでもなげきつるかな

tsure mo naki
hito o kou tote
yamabiko no
kotauru made mo
nagekitsuru kana
A heartless
Girl he loves, says he,
The mountain man,
Until she gives him her reply,
Is full of grief!

164

Right

我が恋は深山がくれの草なれやしげさまされど知る人のなき

wa ga koi wa
miyamagakure no
kusa nare ya
shigesa masaredo
shiru hito no naki
My love:
Hidden in the mountains’ heart are
Grasses-is that it?
Most lush, but
Unknown to all.

Ono no Yoshiki

165[1]


[1] Kokinshū XII: 560/Shinsen man’yōshū 462

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 32

Left

This poem is missing from extant copies of the text of the contest.

Right

夏虫にあらぬ我が身のつれもなき人をおもひにもゆる比かな

natsumushi ni
aranu wa ga mi no
tsure mo naki
hito o omoi ni
moyuru koro kana
A summer insect
I am not, but
That heartless
Girl, with passion
Has these days set me burning!

63[1]


[1] Shinchokusenshū XII: 708

Love X: 1

Left
蘆間分け月にうたひて漕ぐ舟に心ぞまづは乗りうつりぬる

ashima wake
tsuki ni utaite
kogu fune ni
kokoro zo mazu wa
nori’utsurinuru
Parting the reeds, and
Singing to the moon,
Boats come rowing out –
My heart, it is, that is first
Aboard and carried away…

Kenshō
1141

Right (Win)
浪の上にくだるを舟のむやひして月にうたひし妹ぞ戀しき

nami no ue ni
kudaru o fune no
muyaishite
tsuki ni utaishi
imo zo koishiki
Upon the waves,
Her boat departs,
Vanishing into the mist;
That moon-sung
Girl is dear to me, indeed!

The Supernumerary Master of the Empress’ Household Office
1142

A woman wearing a kimono sits in a small boat with her back to the viewer. The boat is on a still river, with mist rolling in gradually obscuring the reflection of the woman and boat. It is night, with a clear sky and full moon shining down from above.
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A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Create with Soan.

The Right state: the Left’s poem lacks much of a conception of pleasure girls. In appeal: the poem was written in the conception of Mochitoki’s Chinese poem on pleasure girls ‘the reed-leaves are fresh in springtime’. The Left state: the Right’s poem has nothing worth mentioning.

In judgement: is the conception of pleasure girls really absent from the Left’s ‘parting the reeds, and singing to the moon’ (ashima wake tsuki ni utaite)? The case certainly cannot rely on ‘the reed-leaves are fresh in springtime’. A Chinese poem expresses its topic in its initial line. It is normal for the introduction of the topic to be vague. Japanese and Chinese poetry have aspects where they are similar, and aspects where they differ. Thus, it is not appropriate to cite a Chinese poem’s broaching of its topic as evidence for a Japanese poem’s content. There are certainly other examples by Mochitoki, such as his overlong line in ‘in a boat atop the waves, but I find the same pleasure in life’. The line about reed-leaves can in no way function as proof. Thus this poem, as ‘an old fisherman sings a single shanty’ could be said to be about an old man. As a result, given the lack of clarity in the poem, it is not possible to accept that it is about a pleasure girl. The Right’s poem concludes ‘that moon-sung girl is dear to me, indeed’ (tsuki ni utaishi imo zo koishiki). The final line seems to be almost pointlessly pedestrian, but the poem is certainly about love for a pleasure girl. The Right must win.