Autumn.
あきふかきもみぢのいろのくれなゐにふりいでてなくしかのこゑかな
| aki fukaki momiji no iro no kurenai ni furi’idete naku shika no koe kana | In autumn’s depths Upon the leaves’ hue So scarlet A clearing wash cries With a stag’s bell! |
Tag Archives: kurenai
SIS XI: 632
よそにのみ見てやはこひむ紅のすゑつむ花のいろにいでずは
| yoso ni nomi mite ya wa koFimu kurenawi no suetumuFana no iro ni idezu Fa | Simply from a distance Have I glimpsed you, and yearned, Though scarlet Safflower Hues I have not shown…[i] |
[i] See: Topic unknown. 人しれずおもへばくるし紅のすゑつむ花のいろにいでなむ hito shirezu / omoeba kurushi / kurenai no / suetsumuhana no . iro ni idenamu ‘Unknown to all / Are my feelings; what pain! / Scarlet / As the safflower / Would I show my love.’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XI: 496)
Kinkai wakashū 701
Dairi uta’awase – Tenryaku ku-nen 02
Round Two
Left
しらつゆのこのはをわきておくやまのふかきもみぢはいろもうつらじ
| shiratsuyu no ko no ha o wakite okuyama no fukaki momiji wa iro mo utsuraji | Silver dewfall Marks out the leaves upon the trees; In the mountains’ heart, Deep scarlet the autumn leaves Hues, too, will never fade away. |
3[i]
Right (Win)
くれなゐのやしほのいろはもみぢばに秋くははれるとしにざりける
| kurenai no yashio no iro wa momijiba ni aki kuwawareru toshi ni zarikeru | With vermillion Dippings eight, hue is laid Upon the scarlet leaves with Autumn added To the year! |
4[ii]
[i] This poem is included in Gyokuyōshū (V: 794/795) with the headnote, ‘For the scarlet leaves match during the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’.
[ii] This poem is included in Gyokuyōshū (V: 795/796) with the headnote, ‘For the scarlet leaves match during the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’. It is also included in Mandaishū (V: 1223) with the headnote, ‘A poem from the autumn leaves match held at the palace in the intercalary Ninth Month, Tenryaku 9’ and in Kiyotada-shū (38), with the headnote ‘From an autumn leaves match at the palace, in a year when there were two ninth months’.
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase 04
Original
あきやまはからくれなゐになりにけりいくしほしぐれふりてそめけむ
| akiyama wa karakurenai ni narinikeri iku shio shigure furite somekemu | The autumn mountains To Cathay scarlet Have turned; How many dippings with drizzle Have fallen to dye them so? |
9
Left
しぐれつつくれなゐふかくやまのはもあきはてゆけばかひなかりけり
| shiguretsutsu kurenai fukaku yama no ha mo aki hateyukeba kainakarikeri | With every shower The scarlet deepens Of the leaves upon the mountain— With autumn reaching its ending How pointless that is… |
10
Right
いくしほもしぐれはふらじさほひめのふかくそめたるいろとこそみれ
| iku shio mo shigure wa furaji saohime no fukaku sometaru iro to koso mire | No matter how many dippings With drizzle fall, Princess Sao’s Deeply dyed Hues we see! |
11
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 12
Round Twelve
Left (T – Win)
柞原紅ふかく染めてけり時雨の雨はいろなけれども
| hahasowara kurenai fukaku sometekeri shigure no ame wa iro nakeredomo | The oak groves Deeply scarlet Have been dyed, Though the rain shower Lacks any hue at all… |
Lord Shigemoto
23
Right (M – Win)
山里はならのから葉の散敷きてしぐれの音もはげしかりけり
| yamazato wa nara no karaba no chirishikite shigure no oto mo hageshikarikeri | My mountain retreat has The oaks’ withered leaves Scattered and spread around, so The sound of showers is all The more severe. |
Lord Tamezane
24
Toshiyori states: the ‘oak grove’ poem, saying that plants fade and autumn leaves are dyed by things like dew and frost is as unremarkable as saying that one’s sweetheart’s skirt trails down. The ‘mountain retreat’ poem has ‘the oaks’ withered leaves’ and this is problematic. It would certainly have been better to avoid using ‘withered leaves’. In addition, I wonder about saying ‘the sound of showers is severe’? I feel it would be better to use this when looking down on the stony valley gate from the high peak of Mount Arachi. The first poem is slightly superior.
Mototoshi states; the poems of Left and Right are about the same quality, but the Left’s poem lacks a conception of showers and is entirely a poem on scarlet leaves, so in the current context ‘oaks’ withered leaves’ is slightly superior.
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 47
Round Eleven
Left
おぼつかないづれうらごの山ならんみなくれなゐにみゆる紅葉ば
| obotsukana izure urago no yama naran mina kurenai ni miyuru momijiba | How strange it is— Where is Urago Mountain, I wonder? When all the same scarlet Seem the autumn leaves… |
Kiyosuke
93
Right (Win)
大ゐ河きしのもみぢのちるをりは浪にたたするにしきとぞみる
| ōigawa kishi no momiji no chiru ori wa nami ni tatasuru nishiki to zo miru | At the River Ōi, When the scarlet leaves upon the bank Come to fall, Cut out by the waves, Does their brocade appear! |
Mikawa
94
When I listen to the Left I wonder what on earth it’s actually about—the end seems redolent of love. The Right doesn’t seem to have any particular faults, so it should win.
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 45
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
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 44
Round Eight
Left (Tie)
紅葉ばは紅ふかく成りゆけど独さめたる松の色かな
| momijiba wa kurenai fukaku nariyukedo hitori sametaru matsu no iro kana | The autumn leaves Deeply scarlet Are becoming, yet Singly, all the more aware am I Of the pine tree’s hues! |
Koreyuki
87
Right
ははそ原しぐるるままにときは木のまれなりけるも今ぞみえける
| hahasowara shigururu mama ni tokiwagi no marenarikeru mo ima zo miekeru | As the oak groves Linger under showers, An evergreen, So rare, is What appears to me now. |
Kojijū
88
Both Left and Right drop scarlet leave and are composed on evergreens, so they lack the essence of the topic, don’t they. The Right has the finer configuration, but autumn leaves, pointlessly, fail to appear in it. In addition, somewhat distastefully, it puts me in mind of the poem, ‘…Truly, evergreen / The pine tree seems’,[1] so the best these can do is tie.
[1] A poem from a poetry contest held by Her Majesty, the Empress, in the Kanpyō period. 雪ふりて年のくれぬる時こそつひにもみぢぬ松も見えけれ yuki furite / toshi no kurenuru / toki ni koso / tsui ni momijinu / matsu mo miekere ‘Snow falls and /The year reaches its evening, / It is at this time that / Truly, evergreen / The pine tree seems.’ Anonymous (KKS VI: 340)
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 41
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.
