Tag Archives: kōri

KKS I: 12

A poem from the Poetry Competition held in the reign of the Kanpyō Empress.

谷風にとくる氷のひまごとに打いづる波や春のはつ花

tanikaze ni
tokuru koFori no
Fimagoto ni
uti’iduru nami ya
Faru no FatuFana
In the valley’s breezes
Does melt the ice, and
From every crack
Do burst waves – are these
The first blooms of spring?

Minamoto no Masazumi
源当純

Love I: 11

Left.

氷ゐるみるめなぎさのたぐひかな上堰く袖の下のさゞ浪

kōri iru
mirume nagisa no
tagui kana
ue seku sode no
shita no sazanami
As ice-bound
Algae on the beach
Am I:
The surface stopped up, but my sleeves
Conceal a confusion of waves…

Lord Sada’ie.

621

Right.

我とはと思ふにかゝる涙こそ抑ふる袖の下になりぬれ

ware to wa to
omou ni kakaru
namida koso
osauru sode no
shita ni narinure
I should say nothing,
I feel, and yet
My tears,
Held down by my sleeves,
Do flow beneath them…

Nobusada.

622

The Gentlemen of the Right state: the Left do not seem to be expressing enough. The Gentlemen of the Left state: the initial line of the Right’s poem is difficult to pronounce. In addition, it is difficult to understand.

Shunzei’s judgement: the Left’s ‘the surface stopped up, but my sleeves’ (ue seku sode no) and the Right’s ‘held down by my sleeves’ (osauru sode no) are both elegant in form [yū naru sama], but no matter how much I ponder them I find them difficult to comprehend, so again, there is no clear winner or loser this round.