na ni shi owaba sono kamiyama no aoigusa kakete mukashi o omoi’idenan
It’s all in the name:[i] This sacred hill’s Hollyhocks were Hung on that day, long ago, that I wish you would remember…[ii]
628
[i] This poem is built around a play-on-words: the ‘name’ of hollyhock, aoi 葵 or more precisely, afuhi as it was pronounced at the time Sanetomo was writing, was homophonous with afu hi 逢ふ日 (‘the day we met’). Thus, a more accurate paraphrase of the poem’s meaning would be: ‘Today is the Kamo Festival when “day-we-met” flowers are hung around. When you see them, I wish you would remember that day long ago…’
[ii] See: Composed on hollyhocks. いかなればそのかみ山のあふひぐさとしはふれどもふた葉なるらん ikanareba / sono kamiyama no / aoigusa / toshi wa furedomo / futaba naruran ‘Why is it that / Upon divine Kamo Hill / The hollyhocks / Though years do pass, / Have such twofold leaves?’ Kojijū (Shinkokinshū III: 183)
iro fukaki yashio no oka no momijiba ni kokoro o sae mo sometekeru kana
Deep the hues On Yashio Hill Of the scarlet leaves— Even my heart, too, Have they dyed!
Lord Yorisuke 79
Right
しぐれつつ秋こそふかく成りにけり色どりわたるやのの神山
shiguretsutsu aki koso fukaku narinikeri irodori wataru yano no kamiyama
With constant showers Autumn has, indeed, deeper Grown; A change of hue all across Sacred Mount Yano.
Lord Michiyoshi 80
While the Left sounds well-worn, it flows smoothly. As for the Right, it sounds to me as if the poet has simply picked and placed a location from the Collection of a Myriad Leaves into his poem, so ‘a change of hue all across sacred Mount Yano is stylistically archaic—thus the Left wins.
