Composed on violets, at the time of the same hundred poem sequence.
雉子鳴く石田の小野の坪菫しめさすばかりなりにけるかな
| kigisu naku iFata no wono no tubosumire sime sasu bakari narinikeru kana |
Pheasants call From Iwata meadows where Violets are Simply symbols of Their possession. |
Akisue
顕季
This poem is also Horikawa hyakushu 245.
Left.
雉子鳴く嵯峨野の原の御幸には古き跡をや先尋ぬらん
| kigisu naku sagano no hara no miyuki ni wa furuki ato o ya saki tazunuran |
The pheasants cry In the fields of Sagano; On this Imperial Progress, The traces of times long gone Should we visit first? |
533
Right (Win).
すべらぎの今日の御幸は御狩野の草葉も靡く物にぞ有ける
| suberagi no kyō no miyuki wa mikarino no kusaha mo nabiku mono ni zo arikeru |
On His Majesty’s Progress on this day To His hunting grounds The very blades of grass do bow Before Him |
The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.
534
The Right state that pheasants do not cry out during the winter, to which the Left reply that this is seen occasionally in recent poetry. The Left then comment that mi occurs too often in the Right’s poem.
Shunzei’s judgement: The Left’s ‘traces of times long gone’ (furuki ato o ya) is most fine [yoroshiku haberubeshi]. On pheasants crying in winter, it goes without saying that they do not, and in this poem in particular, I wonder about the appropriateness of ‘pheasants crying’ (because it was convention to avoid anything with potentially negative associations in a poem on the topic of Imperial Visits). The Right’s poem commences with ‘His Majesty’ (suberagi no) and continues with ‘the very blades of grass do bow’ (kusaha mo nabiku) which has felicitous associations. Thus, the Right must win.
Left.
大原や野邊の御幸に所得て空取る今日の眞白斑の鷹
| ōhara ya nobe no miyuki ni tokoro ete soratoru kyō no mashirō no taka |
Ōhara Plain for an Imperial Progress is Most apt; Catching prey a’wing this day Is a white banded hawk! |
529
Right (Win).
嵯峨の原走る雉子の形跡は今日の御幸に隱れなき哉
| saga no hara hashiru kigisu no kata ato wa kyō no miyuki ni kakurenaki kana |
On the field of Saga Racing, the pheasants’ Tracks Today’s Imperial Progress Will not come at all… |
530
The Right state that ‘most apt’ (tokoro ete) is rarely heard in poems. The Left reply that ‘track’ (kata ato) is the same.
Shunzei’s judgement: The poem of the Left sounds grandiose, but there is something dubious about it. When starting with Ōhara (ōhara ya), one expects it to be followed by ‘Oshio Mountain’, as it suggests the field of Ōhara. Without that following Oshio Mountain, when one encounters Ōhara, on recollects both ‘misty clear waters’ and ‘waters of a pure, peaceful well’, and does not know to which the Ōhara refers. There is no precedent at all for Imperial vists to the Ōhara which lies at the foot of Mount Hiei. There are, however, for visits to Mount Oshio. In the poem on ‘waters of a pure, peaceful well’, it states that ‘though there are no birds, we visit for our pleasure’, so it would be impossible for the ‘white banded hawk’ to take prey a’wing there. I have heard ‘tracks’ before, but the poem has little sense of truly knowing ‘Saga Field’, yet there have, without doubt, been Imperial visits there, so ‘tracks’ must be the better poem.
Left.
武蔵野に雉も妻やこもるらんけふの煙の下に鳴なり
| musashino ni kigisu mo tsuma mo ya komoruran kyō no kemuri no shita ni nakunari |
Upon Musashi Plain Is the cock pheasant’s hen, also, Concealed? For today from beneath The smoke come plaintive cries… |
81
Right (Win).
妻戀のきゞす鳴なり朝霞晴るればやがて草隱れつゝ
| tsuma koi no kigisu nakunari asa kasumi harureba yagate kusagakuretsutsu |
Longing for his hen The pheasant calls; When morning’s haze Has cleared, how swiftly He hides among the grass. |
The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.
82
The Right comment that the Left’s poem resembles Minamoto no Yorimasa’s poem:
霞をや煙と見えん武蔵野に妻もこもれる雉鳴くなり
| kasumi wo ya kemuri to mien musasino ni tuma mo komoreru kigisu nakunari |
The haze Does seem as smoke; On Musashino Plain With his hen hidden A pheasant calls. |
The Left snap back that as Yorimasa’s poem is not included in the imperial anthologies, they could not have seen it, and in any case, what sort of criticism is it to say that it ‘resembles Yorimasa’s poem?’ As for the Right’s poem, ‘do pheasants always hide in the grass come the morning?’
Shunzei comments that it is ‘a bit much’ to avoid Yorimasa’s poem altogether. Although he does then go on to say that ‘there’s no reason to strong arm in examples’ of poems not in the imperial anthologies. However, ‘what’s the point’ of associating ‘today’ (kyō) so strongly with ‘smoke’ (kemuri)? (It was supposed to be used only for particular days, such as the first day of spring.) In the Right’s poem ‘When morning’s haze/Has cleared, how swiftly’ (asa kasumi/harureba yagate) ‘has nothing needing criticism about it’, so the their poem is superior this round.
Around the Third month, I went hawking in Ōhara, and stopped on the way in a place where the cherry blossom was most beautiful; the following day I sent this to the Provisional Minor Captain.
きゞすなく大原山の櫻花かりにはあらでしばし見しかな
| kigisu naku oFoFarayama no sakurabana kari ni Fa arade sibasi misi kana |
Pheasants cried In the Ôhara hills of Cherry blossom; Abandoning my hunt, I, for a while, was captivated. |
Composed when Controller Tametō said he was going pheasant hunting on hearing that his lady at Sanjō had given birth to their first child.
きゞすゝむ小塩の原の小松原とりはじめたる千代のかずかも
| kigisu sumu wosiFo no Fara no komatubara toriFazimetaru tiyo no kazu kamo |
Pheasant roosting Oshio Fields’ Pine saplings do but Begin to number The one thousand generations of his years. |