Tag Archives: Iki

SIS XVIII: 1208

When a woman who had long been an acquaintence of Left Middle Captain Naritoki departed for Tsukushi, Lord Sanekata, went as a messenger to Usa, and she gave this to him out of concern.

今日迄は生の松原いきたれど我身のうさに歎てぞふる

keFu made Fa
iki no matubara
ikitaredo
wa ga mi no usa ni
nagekite zo Furu
Up until today
Among the pine groves of Iki
Have I lived, yet
In my desolation
Am I drowned in grief.

The Daughter of Fujiwara no Nochiō
藤原後生女

Love I: 27

Left (Tie).

尋ても逢はずは憂さやまさりなん心づくしに生の松原

tazunete mo
awazu wa usa ya
masarinan
kokoro zukushi ni
iki no matsubara
Paying a visit and
Not meeting: the despair
Reaches new heights,
Exhausting my heart, as a journey to
Iki in Matsubara!

Kenshō.

653

Right.

行逢はん契も知らず花薄ほの見し野邊に迷ひぬる哉

yukiawan
chigiri mo shirazu
hana sususki
hono mishi nobe ni
mayoinuru kana
Go, and I will meet her!
Heedless of if such a bond exists,
The miscanthus fronds
Briefly glimpsed across the fields,
Drive me to confusion!

Ietaka.

654

The Gentlemen of the Left and Right state the opposing team’s poem lacks thought.

Shunzei’s judgement: The Left draws excessively on conceits of Kyushu. In the Right’s poem, ‘confusion in the fields’ (nobe no mayoi) does not seem to lead anywhere. Both of these poems lack any real conception other than their use of conceits. The round ties.