Tag Archives: heavens

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 31

Round Seven

Left (Tie)

あまつほしありともみえぬ秋のよの月はすずしき光なりけり

ama tsu hoshi
ari tomo mienu
aki no yo no
tsuki wa suzushiki
hikari narikeri
Stars in the heavens
Appear there to be none on
An autumn night when
The moon a cool
Light sheds.

Kojijū
61

Right

さ夜ふくる空にきえゆく浮雲の名残もみえぬ秋のよの月

sayo fukuru
sora ni kieyuku
ukigumo no
nagori mo mienu
aki no yo no tsuki
As brief night wears on
Vanishing from the skies are
The drifting clouds,
Leaving no keepsake for
The moon this autumn night.

Moromitsu
62

The Left, in addition to suffering from the Tree-Bank fault,[1] compounds this by adding a further line so all the first three lines begin with the same sound. This has been noted as a fault in earlier poetry matches. The Right, too, mentions ‘night’ twice and this is a significant fault, but I am unable to grasp the sense of the Left’s poem, so it’s difficult to make a judgement between them.


[1] Ganjubyō 岸樹病 (‘Tree-Bank fault’): this was one of the four poetic faults identified in the poetic treatise Waka sakushiki 倭歌作式 (‘Code of Creation of Japanese Poetry’), attributed to Kisen 喜撰 (fl. 810-824), hence the treatise’s alternative title of Kisenshiki 喜撰式 (‘Kisen’s Selected Codes’). This attribution is widely believed to be spurious, however, and that the work was probably written in the mid-Heian period. Ganjubyō refers to beginning the first and second ‘lines’ of a waka with the same syllable, in this case ‘a’.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 25

Moon

Round One

Left (Tie)

月きよみながむる人の心さへ雲井にすめる秋の夜はかな

tsuki kiyomi
nagamuru hito no
kokoro sae
kumoi ni sumeru
aki no yowa kana
The moon, so pure, that
Gazing folk feel
Their very hearts
Clearly in the heavens
On an autumn midnight!

Lord Shige’ie
49

Right

のこるべきかきねの雪は先消えてほかはつもるとみゆる月かな

nokorubeki
kakine no yuki wa
mazu kiete
hoka wa tsumoru to
miyuru tsuki kana
It should be lingering
On my brushwood fence, but the snow
First vanishes, then
Piling up elsewhere
Appears moonlight!

Lord Yorimasa
50

The Left seems extremely commonplace, and simply ending ‘autumn midnight’ feels incomplete. As for the Right, what does it mean to say that ‘the snow upon my brushwood fence first vanishes’? Might it mean that because of the fence’s shadow, the moon’s light cannot be seen? It really sounds as if the poet has gone too far in his quest for unusual expressions. Then there’s ‘piling up elsewhere’ along with ‘autumn midnight’—neither of these sound superior, so it’s impossible to say which poem is.

Teiji’in tenjōbito uta’awase 01

Among the courtiers in service to His Majesty, former Emperor Uda, it was possible to pick out those who had some sensitivity and those who did not, so in a certain year, when the kōshin rite came around on the 7th day of the Seventh Month, those gentlemen who were thought to have this sensitivity spent the day composing poems on the topic of ‘feelings after meeting at Tanabata’ which were divided into teams and matched.

Left

としごとにこりずやあるらんたなばたのあひてこひしきわかれのみする

toshigoto ni
korizu ya aruran
tanabata no
aite koishiki
wakare nomi suru
Every single year
Does she never learn, I wonder?
The Weaver Maid
Meets and then with love
Does simply part.

1

Right (Win)

おもひやる心のそらにしらるればたなばたつめのわかれかなしな

omoiyaru
kokoro no sora ni
shirarureba
tanabatatsume no
wakare kanashiki
Yearning fills
The heavens of her heart—
How well she knows it, for
The Weaver Maid’s
Parting is so sad.

2

Entō ōn’uta’awase 11

Round Eleven

Left

しら雲の朝たつ山のからにしき枝に一むら春風ぞ吹く

shirakumo no
asa tatsu yama no
karanishiki
eda ni hito mura
harukaze zo fuku
Clouds of white
Arising with the morning on the mountain:
Cathay brocade
In a single bunch upon the branch
Blown by the breeze of spring! [1]

Supernumerary Major Counsellor Moto’ie
21

Right (Win)

かづらきや嶺の桜のさきしより心の空にかかるしら雲

kazuragi ya
mine no sakura no
sakishi yori
kokoro no sora ni
kakaru shirakumo
Upon Kazuragi
Peak, the cherries
Have bloomed and ever since
The heavens of my heart are
Draped with clouds of white.

Lord Nobunari
22

The Left’s poem has ‘Arising with the morning on the mountain: Cathay brocade in a single bunch upon the branch’ and, while it mentions spring breezes in its final section and does not fail to reflect the surface appearance of its source poem, conveys a feeling of scarlet leaves without mentioning blossom or cherry, which I have to say is something of a fault. The Right’s poem does not seem poor and lacks any faults worth mentioning, so it should win.


[1] An allusive variation on SIS IV: 220.

Yōzei-in uta’awase (Engi jūsan-nen kugatsu kokonoka) 19

Left

おほぞらの心ぞまどふめにみえてわかるる秋ををしむわがみは

ōzora no
kokoro zo madou
me ni miete
wakaruru aki o
oshimu wa ga mi wa
The heavens’
Heart lies confused
Before my eyes;
Departing autumn
Leaves me with with nothing but regret.

37

Right

とどむれどとまらぬ秋ををしむとて心にはかるなをやたちなん

todomuredo
tomaranu aki o
oshimu tote
kokoro ni wa karu
na o ya tachinan
I would have it linger, yet
It will not—autumn,
I regret so
Within my heart, briefly
Should I call it that?

38

Yōzei-in uta’awase (Engi jūsan-nen kugatsu kokonoka) 06

Left

あきごとにさかずはあらねど女郎花散りゆくことはをしくぞありける

aki goto ni
sakazu wa aranedo
ominaeshi
chiriyuku koto wa
oshiku zo arikeru
Every single autumn,
It’s not that you bloom not, yet
O, maidenflowers,
That you scatter away
I regret, indeed!

11

Right

めにみえてわかるる秋ををしまめやおほぞらのみぞながめらるらん

me ni miete
wakaruru aki o
oshimame ya
ōzora nomi zo
nagameraruran
Before my eyes
Autumn is departing—
Should I regret it, or
Simply to the heavens, alone,
Ever turn my gaze?

12

Uda-in uta’awase 9

Lilac Daphne

Left (Tie)

かたをかにひのはなばなにみえつるはこのもかのもにたれかつけつる

kataoka ni
hi no hanabana ni
mietsuru wa
konomo kanomo ni
tare katsuketsuru
Upon the hillside
The fires as flowers
Do appear—
Here and there,
Who has kindled them?

Tsurayuki
17

Right

わたつみのおきなかにひのはなれいでてもゆとみゆるはあまつほしかも

watatsumi no
oki naka ni hi no
hanare’idete
moyu to miyuru wa
ama tsu hoshi kamo
Across the broad sea sweep
Upon the offing, fires
In the distance
Burn it seems—
Stars within the heavens, perhaps…

Tomonori
18

Uda-in uta’awase 8

Azaleas

Left

かりがねにおもひかけつつしのばなんあまつそらなるわが身なりとも

kari ga ne ni
omoikaketsutsu
shinobanan
ama tsu sora naru
wa ga mi naritomo
Upon the goose cries
Ever hang your thoughts, and
Remember, that
Within the sky-spanning heavens
I may yet be…

Sadafun
15

Right

うぐひすのこゑなつかしくなきつるはのちもこひつつしのばなむとか

uguisu no
koe natsukashiku
nakitsuru wa
nochi mo koitsutsu
shinobanamu to ka
Does the warbler’s
Song so charmingly
Ring out that
Later, ever fondly
Will he be remembered?

16

Kanpyō no ōntoki kisai no miya uta’awase 47

Left

雁のねは風にきほひてわたれどもわが待つ人のことづてぞなき

kari no ne wa
kaze ni kioite
wataredomo
wa ga matsu hito no
kotozute zo naki
The goose cries
Competing with the wind
Come across, yet
From the man I’m waiting for
There is no word at all…

92

Right

大空をとりかへすとも見えなくにほしかとみゆる秋の草かな

ōzora o
torikaesu tomo
mienaku ni
hoshi ka to miyuru
aki no kusa kana
The heavens
Claimed back, they
Do not appear to be, yet
Somehow, they seem like stars:
These autumn grasses!

93