Tag Archives: ito

Chūjō miyasudokoro uta’awase

Chūjō miyasudokoro uta’awase

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Composed when it was said that a poetry competition was to be held at the residence of the Ninna Middle Captain Lady of the Bedchamber.
花のちることやわびしき春霞たつたの山のうぐひすのこゑ

Fana no tiru
koto ya wabisiki
Farugasumi
tatuta no yama no
uguFisu no kowe		 The falling of the flowers
Is sad, indeed;
In the spring haze
On Tatsuta Mountain
A warbler cries…

Fujiwara no Chikage
藤原後蔭

1

Composed when it was said that a poetry competition was to be held at the residence of the Ninna Middle Captain Lady of the Bedchamber.
惜しと思ふ心は糸に縒られなむ散る花ごとに貫きてとどめむ

osi to omoFu
kokoro Fa ito ni
yorarenamu
tiru Fana goto ni
nukite todomemu		 A regretful
Heart with threads
Does seem to be entangled;
Every single scattered bloom
Will I thread on them to keep.

Sosei
素性

2

Kin'yōshū

KYS VII: 386

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When there had been a gale, and someone had called to see how she was, in the silence later, she wrote this and sent it.

荒かりし風の後より絶えするは蜘蛛手にすがく糸にやあるらん

arakarisi
kaze no noti yori
taesuru Fa
kumode ni sugaku
ito ni ya aruran		 Wildly
The wind has gone, and
Broken are
The spider’s spanning
Webs – is that how we are to be?

Sagami
相模

Poetry Competition in Six Hundred Rounds

Love V: 23

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Left (Tie).
隔てける籬の島のわりなきに住む甲斐なしや千賀の塩釜

hedatekeru
magaki no shima no
warinasa ni
sumu kai nashi ya
chika no shiogama		 Barring our way is
The fence – Magaki Isle:
So unreasonable
That living close is pointless, as if
We were at Chika’s salt-kilns!

Kenshō
885

Right.
忍ぶ草竝ぶ軒端の夕暮に思ひをかはすさゝがにの糸

shinobugusa
narabu nokiba no
yūgure ni
omoi o kawasu
sasagani no ito		 A weeping fern lies
Between our almost touching eaves;
In the evening
Love will pass
Along the spider’s thread.

Ietaka
886

The Right state: the Left’s ‘Magaki Isle’ (magaki no shima) and ‘Chika’s salt kiln’s’ (chika no shiogama) do not seem that nearby, do they? They only evoke closeness through wordplay. The Right state: we find no faults to indicated in the Left’s poem.

In judgement: the Left’s ‘Magaki Isle’ and ‘Chika’s salt kilns’, even if they are not that close, do not display a lack of technique in the conception of the current composition. I do wonder what to think about ‘so unreasonable’ (warinasa ni), though. The Right’s weeping ferns, with the spider’s behaviour transmitting the feelings of love, does not seem unreasonable either. This round, too, the poems are comparable and should tie.