Composed on hawking in the snow.
ぬれぬれもなほかりゆかむはしたかのうはげの雪をうちはらひつつ
| nurenure mo naFo kariyukamu Fasitaka no uFage no yuki wo utiFaraFitutu | Drenched, but even so Let us still hunt on! From my sparrowhawk’s Plumage the snow I’ll ever brush! |
Minamoto no Michinari
Left (Win)
鳥の音は戀しき人の何なれや逢夜はいとひ逢はぬ夜は待つ
| tori no ne wa koishiki hito no nani nare ya auyo wa itoi awanu yo wa matsu |
The cock’s crow: For my darling, What might it mean? Hated on nights we meet, and Longed for when we do not… |
Lord Kanemune
1049
Right
いかにして空とる程もはし鷹のしばしもこひに身を休むらん
| ika ni shite sora toru hodo mo hashitaka no shibashi mo koi ni mi o yasumuran |
Why, when Hunting in the skies, does The sparrowhawk Briefly in the trees Take his ease? |
Ietaka
1050
The Gentlemen of the Right state: ‘What might it mean?’ (nani nare ya) fails to match. Ending ‘longed for’ (matsu) is overly definite. The Gentlemen of the Left state: what has hunting in the skies got to do with love?
In judgement: it has been said that ‘cock’s crow’ (tori no ne) and ‘what might it mean’ fail to match. Then there is also ‘definite’ (futsugiri). These are nothing but expressions which I do not know and find difficult to understand. ‘The sparrowhawk hunting in the skies’ (hashitaka no sora toru hodo) and ‘take his ease in the trees’ (koi ni yasumuran) both have only a faint conception of love, and I wonder about alluding to hawking. The Left failing to match, too, may be a term used in coursing for deer. Well, even if the deer do not match, as it has the conception of love, the Left should win.
Left (Tie).
箸鷹を古きためしに引き据へて跡ある野邊の御幸成けり
| hashitaka o furuki tameshi ni hikisuete ato aru nobe no miyuki narikeri |
A sparrowhawk As of old Shall I call to hand; Traces left upon this field Of an Imperial progress. |
531
Right.
箸鷹も會ふを嬉しと思ふらん絶えにし野邊の今日の御幸に
| hashitaka mo au o ureshi to omouran taenishi nobe no kyō no miyuki ni |
The sparrowhawk, too, Would be glad to greet, I feel, At last, the field Where today’s Progress is… |
532
Neither team finds any fault with the other’s poem this round.
Shunzei’s judgement: Both poems are on sparrowhawks (hashitaka), with the Left ‘as of old shall I call to hand’ (furuki tameshi ni hikisuete) the bird, while the Right’s ‘would be glad to greet, I feel’ (au o ureshi to omouran), and both sound charming [okashiku kikoyu]. The round must tie.
Left.
踏迷ふ山梨の花道たえて行さきふかきやへ白雲
| fumimayou yamanashi no hana michi taete yukusaki fukaki yae shirakumo |
Trudging, lost, amongst The pear blossom on the hills, The path comes to an end, and My way lies deep between The eight-fold clouds. |
189
Right (Win).
はし鷹のとかへる山路越えかねてつれなき色の限をぞ見る
| hashitaka no tokaeru yamamichi koekanete tsurenaki iro no kagiri o zo miru |
The sparrow-hawks Moult on mountain ways I cannot cross: The cruel constant colour of the pines is All that lies within my sight. |
190