Round Nine
Left
さほ姫の霞の衣おりてけりあそぶいとゆふたてぬきにして
| saohime no kasumi no koromo oritekeri asobu itoyū tatenuki ni shite | Princess Sao Of mist a gown Has woven; The threads of haze Make the warp and weft… |
Naganori
17
Right
難波がたかすみたな引く春の夜は澳こぐ舟のみえみみえずみ
| naniwagata kasumi tanabiku haru no yo wa oki kogu fune no mie mizu mi | At Naniwa Inlet The haze lies o’er all On a night in springtime Boats rowing into the offing Appear and disappear… |
Narinaka
18
The Left’s haze, the conception of ‘threads of haze make the warp and weft’, puts me in mind of the line ‘touching the sky, they weave and set adrift their emerald netting of silk’, [1]and mentioning Princess Sao seems skillful; the poem is entrancing and charming. As for the Right, the configuration of saying ‘a boat rowing out into the haze of Naniwa Bay’, too, this entrances me so much that it’s something I would wish to show to folk with some sensitivity. I don’t feel there’s much between these, so, once more the round ties.
[1] The translation here comes from Rimer and Chaves (1997, 33) translation of a Sinitic poem in Wakan rōeishū (I: 22).
月みばとたのめし秋のよもすがらまた恨めしく打つ衣かな
| tsuki miba to tanomeshi aki no yomosugara mata urameshiku utsu koromo kana | ‘When we see the moon…’ We promised, but in autumn, All night long, Still, despairingly Am I fulling clothes![i] |
11
[i] See: Topic unknown. 月見ばと契をきてしふるさとの人もやこよひ袖ぬらすらん tsuki miba to / chigiri okiteshi / furusato no / hito mo ya koyoi / sode nurasuran ‘“When we see the moon…” / We made our vow; / Left at home / Does she, too, on this night / Have soaking sleeves, I wonder?’ Dharma Master Saigyō (Shinkokinshū X: 938); and: 月見ばとたのめかおきし人はこであさぢが露にまつむしぞなく tsuki miba to / tanome’okishi / hito wa kode / asaji ga tsuyu ni / matsumushi zo naku ‘“When we see the moon…” / Did he promise, before, but / That man has failed to come, and / From the dewy cogon grass / The pine crickets cry!’ Lord Ietaka (Sengohyakuban uta’awase 1428)
Topic unknown.
山がつのかきねにさける卯の花はたが白妙の衣かけしぞ
| yamagatu no kakine ni sakeru unoFana Fa ta ga sirotaFe no koromo kakesi zo | By the woodcutter’s Brushwood fence a’blooming Deutzia: Whose white mulberry Robes are hung there? |
Anonymous[1]
[1] This poem is a minor variant on Sahyōe no suke sadafumi uta’awase 11, which is attributed to Ōshikochi no Mitsune.
When former Emperor Reizei was Crown Prince and he instructed him to present a hundred poem sequence.
花の色にそめしたもとのをしければ衣かへうきけふにもあるかな
| Fana no iro ni somesi tamoto no wosikereba koromo kaFe’uki keFu ni mo aru kana | With the blossoms’ hues A’dyed, these sleeves Fill me with regret, so I am loath to change my garb, Indeed, today! |
Minamoto no Shigeyuki 源重之
Round Eleven
The Beginning of Summer[1]
Left (Tie)
なくこゑはまだきかねどもせみのはのうすきころもをたちぞきてける
| naku koe wa mada kikanedomo semi no ha no usuki koromo wa tachi zo kitekeru | Their buzzing song Is not yet to be heard, yet Cicada wing Light clothing Has been cut to wear today. |
Yoshinobu
22[2]
Right
夏ごろもたちいづるけふは花ざくらかたみのいろもぬぎやかふらん
| natsugoromo tachi’izuru kyō wa hanazakura katami no iro mo nugi ya kauran | Summer garb: Cut out from today, departing The blossom of the cherries’ Hues—a keepsake—, too, Will I put off and change? |
Nakatsukasa
23
The Left’s poem gives the impression of the beginning of summer, but the Right’s ‘Sewn from today, departing’ suggests that it is the year that is doing so. In addition, it seems to use ‘put off and change’, and so sounds as if time has passed more swiftly than in the Left’s poem. Thus, because the poems’ quality is about the same, I make this a tie.
[1] Shuka 首夏. This Sinitic expression was also used to refer to the the Fourth Month.
Composed after I had met Dharma Eye Teinin,[i] and heard him tell the tale of Ōmine[ii] among other things.
| okuyama no koke no koromo ni oku tsuyu wa namida no ame no shizuku narikeri | Deep within the mountains Upon his robe of moss The falling dewdrops are A rain of tear Droplets. |
613
[i] Teinin 定忍 has not been identified, but from the context here, he must have been a yamabushi 山伏, an itinerant Buddhist monk and practitioner of shugendō.
[ii] Ōmine 大峰 was a mountain in Yoshino in Yamato which was a major location for practitioners of the ascetic Buddhist practice of shugendō 修験道, which involved, among other things, ascending the mountain to increase one’s spiritual power.
