Composed when various people were composing poems on ice at the Victory of Enlightenment Hall.
山がはもこほりにけりないまよりはとどろきおちしおとたゆるまで
| yamagaFa mo koForinikeri na ima yori Fa todoroki otisi oto tayuru made | The mountain stream Has turned to ice, and From now The echoes of its fall Have ceased to make sound henceforth! |
Round Nine
Left
すみのえのこほりとみゆる月かげにとけやしぬらむかみのこころも
| suminoe no kōri to miyuru tsukikage ni toke ya shinuramu kami no kokoro mo | At Suminoe As ice appears The moonlight, but Is not, perhaps, melted Even the deity’s heart? |
Lord Fujiwara no Kinshige
Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade
Without Office[1]
17
Right (Win)
すみよしのおまへのきしのまつのはもかずかくれなくみゆる月かげ
| sumiyoshi no omae no kishi no matsu no ha mo kazu kakurenaku miyuru tsukikage | At Sumiyoshi On the coast before the shrine Even the pine needles Cannot hide their numbers, Appearing in the moonlight. |
Venerable Dharma Eye Enjitsu[2]
18
While in the Left ‘ice appears’ and ‘is not, perhaps, melted’ seem to have some kind of linkage, if we consider this as a Cathay-style poem saying ‘A chill night’s moon / Ice atop the swell’, then I would have preferred it to say ‘is, perhaps, bound’. An alternative version of this would, of course, be ‘A spring morn’s breeze / Ice on the eastern shore’ which could lead to ‘is not, perhaps, melted’, I think. The Right has ‘On the coast before the shrine / Even the pine needles’ and through this type of linkage expresses the brightness of the moon. While this type of smug-sounding expression also appeared in the round before last, the moon here does seem bright and so I can say that the Right wins.
[1] San’i shōyon’ige Fujiwara ason Kinshige 散位正四位下藤原朝臣公重
[2] Hōgen kashōi Enjitsu 法眼和尚位円実
春くれば袖のこほりもとけにけりもりくる月しやどるばかりに
| haru kureba sode no kōri mo tokenikeri morikuru tsuki shi yadoru bakari ni | Now that spring has come, The ice atop my sleeves Has melted, and The drops of moonlight are All that lodge there… |
Major Archbishop Gyōson
The Beginning of Winter
Left (Tie)
しものうへにふるはつゆきのあさごほりとけむほどこそひさしかりけれ
| shimo no ue ni furu hatsuyuki no asagōri tokemu hodo koso hisashikarikeri | Upon the frost Falls first snow turning To ice with the morning; The time ‘twill take to melt Will be long, indeed. |
17
Right
かみなづきもみぢのいろはふくかぜとたにのみづとぞおとしはてつる
| kaminazuki momiji no iro wa fuku kaze to tani no mizu to zo otoshihatetsuru | In the Godless Month The scarlet leaves’ hue With the gusting wind, and The waters in the valley, do Drop completely. |
Mitsune
18
Left
足引の山のかけはし冬くればこほりのうへをよきぞかねつる
| ashihiki no yama no kakehashi fuyu kureba kōri no ue o yoki zo kanetsuru | To the leg-wearying Mountain plankways, When the winter comes The ice atop them Is difficult to avoid! |
147
Right
ふゆくれば雪ふりつもる高きみね立つ白雲に見えまがふかな
| fuyu kureba yuki furitsumoru takaki mine tatsu shirakumo ni miemagau kana | When the winter comes The snow fallen, piled high upon The lofty peaks With the rising clouds so white Is easy to confuse! |
148
