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.
