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わがやどの花たちばなにふく風をたが里よりとたれながむらん
| wa ga yado no hanatachibana ni fuku kaze o ta ga sato yori to tare nagamuran | From my home The scent of orange blossom Is carried on the breeze; Will you wonder from whose house it came Lost in pensive thoughts? |
Major Controller of the Left Chikamune
Next Door 隣
隣よりあし火のけぶりもれきつつたかぬさとにもすすたりぬべし
| tonari yori ashibi no keburi morekitsutsu takanu sato ni mo susu tarinubeshi | From next door The smoke from reed-torches is Always flooding across, so Even my home where we light them not Has soot aplenty! |
Kanemasa
Next Door 隣
冬くれば中がきあけて我がやどをへだてもなくや君もみるらん
| fuyu kureba nakagaki akete wa ga yado o hedate mo naku ya kimi mo miruran | Winter has come, so The fence between I’ll open up and Into my home With nothing in your way Might you turn your gaze? |
Akinaka
ゆくすがら心もゆかず別ぢはなほふる里のことぞかなしき
| yuku sugara kokoro mo yukazu wareji wa nao furusato no koto zo kanashiki | On my way along, Uncomprehending, This path of parting, O, my home – How sad I am with thoughts of you! |
Nakazane
Sages’ Dwellings 仙宮
古郷はいかになりにしをののえのくつるもしらず年のへぬれば
| furusato wa ika ni narinishi ono no e no kutsuru mo shirazu toshi no henureba | My home, O, what has become of it? My axe handle Rotting, I noticed not, and So the years passed by… |
Daishin
Felicitations 賀
我がやどにうれしきことぞふりにけるふるにかひある天が下かな
| wa ga yado ni ureshiki koto zo furinikeru furu ni kai aru ame no shita kana | At my home A joyous event Has arrived – Its arrival the effect Of Heaven’s blessings! |
Tadafusa
Temples 寺
やどをいでばたづねてゆかん清水寺なにたがはずは住みやとまると
| yado o ideba tazunete yukan shimizudera nani tagawazu wa sumi ya tomaru to | When I leave my home Intending to pay a call on The temple of pure waters, Would there be no difference between Living or lodging there? |
Tadafusa
Left (Tie)
忘れじの契うらむる故郷の心も知らぬ松蟲の聲
| wasureji no chigiri uramuru furusato no kokoro mo shiranu matsumushi no koe |
Never will I forget you – Despairing of that vow At home All unknowing of my feelings Comes a bell cricket’s cry… |
Lord Sada’ie
1079
Right
來ぬ人の秋のけしきやふけぬらん恨みによはる松蟲の聲
| konu hito no aki no keshiki ya fukenuran urami ni yowaru matsumushi no koe |
He comes not, so Is all seeming done, as autumn Does wear on? How I envy the weakening Bell cricket’s song… |
Jakuren
1080
Left and Right: both poems are equally admirable.
In judgement: the Left’s poem, with ‘all unknowing of my feelings comes a bell cricket’s cry’ (kokoro mo shiranu matsumushi no koe) is fine. The Right, with ‘is all seeming done, as autumn does wear on’ (aki no keshiki ya fukenuran), is too, so both Left and Right do truly move the heart, do they not? I have no way of distinguishing superior from inferior here, so thus must make the round a tie.
Left (Win)
唐国の虎臥す野邊に入るよりもまどふ戀路の末ぞあやうき
| karakuni no tora fusu nobe ni iru yori mo madou koiji no sue zo ayauki |
In far Cathay are Meadows where tigers lie, But rather than entering there, The confusing paths of love Are, at the end, more dangerous… |
Lord Ari’ie
1063
Right
我宿は人もかれ野の淺茅原通ひし駒の跡もとゞめず
| wa ga yado wa hito mo kareno no asajiwara kayoishi koma no ato mo todomezu |
At my home Is only a withered field Of cogon grass; The mount who once did cross it Has left no lingering tracks… |
Ietaka
1064
The Gentlemen of the Right state: how can love be dangerous? The Gentlemen of the Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults to mention.
In judgement: saying that the ‘paths of love are, at the end’ (koiji no sue) dangerous is perfectly commonplace. ‘Is only a withered field of cogon grass’ (hito mo kareno no asajiwara) seems to simply have taken the poem ‘Sedge fields lie / Around the estate of Fushimi, / All long overgrown; / He who passed across them / Has left no tracks at all…’ and swapped in ‘mount who once did cross it’ (kayoishi koma). Changing a man into a mount is discomposing, indeed. Again, the Left should win.
Left (Tie).
故郷に見し面影も宿りけり不破の関屋の板間洩る月
| furusato ni mishi omokage mo yadorikeri fuwa no sekiya no itama moru tsuki |
Back home I saw her face, and It lodges here, At the Barrier House at Fuwa, In the moonlight leaking through the boards. |
A Servant Girl
1007
Right.
人恋ふる我ながめよ思けり須磨の関屋の有明の月
| hito kouru ware nagameyo omoikeri suma no sekiya no ariake no tsuki |
Loving you, I will ever gaze, I thought, At the Barrier House at Suma On the dawntime moon. |
Nobusada
1008
The Right state: the Left’s poem is good. The Left state: the Right’s poem lacks any faults to indicate.
In judgement: the Left’s ‘Barrier House at Fuwa’ (fuwa no sekiya) followed by ‘the moonlight leaking through the boards’ (itama moru tsuki) is truly charming. In addition, if one wonders why ‘I saw her face’ (mishi omokage mo) has been used, it is certainly reminiscent of the poem ‘The dawntime moon, too, lodges in the waters clear’, but an improvement on it. It is difficult to say, however, that the Right’s ‘At the Barrier House at Suma on the dawntime moon’ (suma no sekiya no ariake no tsuki) is in any way inferior.