山しろのいはたの森のいはずとも秋の梢はしるくや有るらん
| yamashiro no iwata no mori no iwazu tomo aki no kozue wa shiruku ya aruran | In Yamashiro The forest of Iwata Lies wordless, yet The autumn treetops Might reveal all? |
465


Round Eleven
Left
さごろもの袂はせばしかづけども時雨の雨は心してふれ
| sagoromo no tamoto wa sebashi kazukedomo shigure no ame wa kokoroshite fure | My night robe’s Sleeves are narrow: I cover myself, yet, O rain shower, Fall with care! |
Lord Toshitaka
21
Right (Both Judges – Win)
はつ時雨音信しより水ぐきの岡の梢の色をしぞ思ふ
| hatsushigure otozureshi yori mizuguki no oka no kozue no iro o shi zo omou | Since the first shower Came to call, Mizuguki Hill’s treetops’ Hues fill my thoughts… |
Lord Tokimasa
22
Toshiyori states: the poem on night robes has ‘Fall with care!’ – is this expressing regret over getting wet? In addition, there’s ‘I cover myself, yet’: it would have been preferable to have this element first. The poem on the ‘first shower’ is not that remarkable, yet it does sound smooth. ‘Hues fill my thoughts’ feels conspicuously old-fashioned, and yet composing using ‘Mizuguki’ seem superior.
Mototoshi states: what on earth is the poet doing saying his ‘night robe’ is ‘narrow’? In the Code of the Shijō Major Counsellor this is indicted to be a bad thing—‘a shallow poem with weighty words’! The poem of the Right has ‘Since the first shower / Came to call’ and I feel that this is how a poem on showers ought to be. Saying ‘Hill’s treetops’ / Hues fill my thoughts’ is a bit trite, but still charming, so this is superior, isn’t it.




Round Twenty
Left
たびねするいそのとまやのむらしぐれあはれをなみのうちそへてける
| tabinesuru iso no tomaya no murashigure aware o nami no utchisoetekeru | Dozing on my travels In a sedge-thatched hut upon the rocky shore, The cloudbursts’ Sadness with that of the waves Is laced. |
Lord Sane’ie
89
Right (Win)
もりもあへずまだきにぬるるたもとかなこずゑしぐるるまつのしたぶし
| mori mo aezu mada ki ni nururu tamoto kana kozue shigururu matsu no shitabushi | No drips Yet have come to my soaking Sleeves— The treetops showered, as Beneath the pines I lay me down. |
Atsuyori
90
The Left’s sound of the waves ‘In a sedge-thatched hut upon the rocky shore… Sadness with that of the waves / Is laced’ does, indeed, convey an inference of sadness, but the concluding ‘is laced’ sounds a bit inappropriate. The Right’s conception and configuration, too, are extremely charming. ‘Beneath the pines I lay me down’ is, I think, a novel construction—although I do get the impression that that it sounds like something which has prior precedent. Still, saying ‘No drips / Have yet come to my soaking’ and then ‘The treetops showered, as / Beneath the pines’ means that the sound conveys the loneliness as it truly is. Thus, again, the Right wins.


Left (Tie)
月さゆるつもりのうらのみづがきはふりしくゆきにいろもかはらず
| tsuki sayuru tsumori no ura no mizukaki wa furishiku yuki ni iro wa kawarazu | The moon, so chill, shines Upon the Bay of Tsumori, Where the honored sacred grounds, Spread with fallen snow Remain unchanged in hue. |
Taifu, in service to the Former Ise Virgin[i]
33
Right
あらしふくまつのこずゑにきりはれてかみもこころやすみのえの月
| arashi fuku matsu no kozue ni kiri harete kami mo kokoro ya suminoe no tsuki | The storm wind blows Across the treetops of the pines, Clearing the mists away— I wonder, is the Deity’s heart at Suminoe beneath the moon? |
Lord Fujiwara no Sadanaga
Junior Assistant Minister of Central Affairs
Exalted Fifth Rank, Lower Grade[ii]
34
The Left’s poem appears to be about chill fallen snow spread upon Tsumori Bay, so in saying that the waters bounding the sacred grounds cannot conceal the hue, it appears to be saying that the moon’s light is white, but I wonder if the diction is a bit insufficient to convey this? It seems to me that it simply says that although snow has fallen on the waters bounding the sacred grounds, their hue has not changed—doesn’t it? As for the Right’s poem, I can say that its conception and configuration are pleasant, but it begins with ‘the storm wind blows’ and one cannot say ‘storm wind’ along with ‘beach pines’. One can understand this based on the poem ‘Yes, the mountain wind / Is aptly named “Storm”‘. Still, the poem’s configuration does appear pleasant. Again, I make this a tie.




[i] Zen-saigū no Taifu 前斎宮大輔
[ii] Jūgoige-gyō nakatsukasa no shō Fujiwara ason Sadanaga 従五位下行中務少輔藤原朝臣定長
Round Twelve
Left (Tie)
柞原しぐれにそむるくれなゐはこずゑの風や吹きてほすらん
| hahasowara shigure ni somuru kurenai wa kozue no kaze ya fukitehosuran | The oak groves by The showers are dyed With scarlet— Might the wind through the treetops, Gusting, bring dryness? |
Shinkaku
95
Right
紅葉ばは入日の影のさしそひてゆふくれなゐの色ぞことなる
| momijiba wa irihi no kage no sashisoite yūkurenai no iro zo kotonaru | The autumn leaves By sunset’s light Are struck, and Evening’s scarlet Hue is startlingly fine! |
Lay Priest Norinaga
96
In the Left’s poem I would want there to be an expression such as ‘robe’ or ‘brocade’ which is being blown. As for the Right, it lacks any unusual diction, but has no noticeable faults, so these should tie.




Round Nine
Left (Tie)
秋ごとに葉もりの神のつらきかな紅葉を風にまかすとおもへば
| aki goto ni hamori no kami no tsuraki kana momiji o kaze ni makasu to omoeba | Every single autumn, The guardian deity of the leaves is Cruel, indeed! The scarlet leaves to the wind He does abandon, I feel… |
Narinaka
89
Right
くれなゐに梢の色のかはるより風の音さへあらずなるかな
| kurenai ni kozue no iro no kawaru yori kaze no oto sae arazunaru kana | Since to scarlet The treetops hues Have changed, Even the sound of the wind is Not as it was! |
Tōren
90
The Left depicts things just as they are. If the Right has the same conception as the Cathay-style poem on the wind lessening every morning at Shanglin Park,[1] then it’s that one feels that after the leaves have turned, they’ll scatter, yet one has to think that, later, in summer the treetops will grow lush again, and the sounds do not resemble each other; neither of these are faults and so the round ties.




[1] Wakan rōeishū 312
Round Five
Left (Win)
ゆふかくるここちこそすれすみよしのまつのこずゑをてらす月かげ
| yū kakuru kokochi koso sure sumiyoshi no matsu no kozue o terasu tsukikage | All hung with sacred streamers I feel they are— At Sumiyoshi The treetops of the pines Shining in the moonlight. |
Lord Fujiwara no Shigenori
Captain of the Outer Palace Guards, Left Division
Exalted Senior Third Rank[1]
9
Right
すみよしのまつのこずゑをみわたせばこよひぞかくる月のしらゆふ
| sumiyoshi no matsu no kozue o miwataseba koyoi zo kakuru tsuki no shirayū | When, at Sumiyoshi Over the treetops of the pines I pass my gaze, Hung are they, this midnight With the moon’s white sacred streamers… |
Lord Fujiwara no Morikata
Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade
Without Office[2]
10
Left and Right have produced poems on the moon, both with the conception of it resembling white sacred streamers hung on the treetops of the pines, while the differences between them are charming, it does not sound as if the poem of the Right has any reason for singling out ‘this midnight’, while nothing appears lacking in the beauty of the Left’s work and thus, once more, it wins.




[1] Shōsan’i-gyō sahyōe no kami Fujiwara ason Shigenori 正三位行左兵衛督藤原朝臣成範
[2] San’i jūshi’ige Fujiwara ason Morikata 散位従四位下藤原朝臣盛方
Round Five
Left
あさひ山みねの紅葉をみわたせばよもの木末に照りまさりけり
| asahiyama mine no momiji o miwataseba yomo no kozue ni terimasarikeri | When upon Asahi Mountain’s Peak of scarlet leaves I turn my gaze, All over, the treetops Shine most bright! |
Tamechika
81
Right (Win)
紅のやしほの色にめかれすなおなじはもりの神といへども
| kurenai no yashio no iro ni mekaresu na onaji hamori no kami to iedomo | From the scarlet, Deeply dyed, hues O, avert not your eyes! Though the same leaves’ guardian Deity you are called… |
Moromitsu
82
The Left has nothing particular to say and its expression is awkward. As for the Right, a number of learned men seem to have said that one does not compose about the guardian deity of the leaves in relation to trees in general, but about oak trees, yet a great many things have deities to protect them, so I wonder if the guardian deity of the leaves could be a deity for all types of tree—couldn’t it protect any of them? Thus, in this poem, too, couldn’t that be the case? While the concluding ‘though you are called’sounds overly direct, it appears it should win.



