いせ島やいちしのあまのすて衣あふことなみに朽ちやはてなん
| iseshima ya ichishi no ama no sutegoromo au koto nami ni kuchi ya hatenan | On Ise Isle At Ichishi a fisherman has Abandoned his garb To the waves—unable to meet Will I, too, rot away, I wonder? |
471
Tag Archives: nami
Kinkai wakashū 446
Kinkai wakashū 444
Kinkai wakashū 376
Kinkai wakashū 354
Kinkai wakashū 353
Kinkai wakashū 352
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 10
Round Ten
Left (T – Tie)
波よする蜑の苫やのひまをあらみもるにてぞしるよはのしぐれは
| nami yosuru ama no tomaya no hima o arami moru nite zo shiru yowa no shigure wa | Waves break near A sedge-thatched hut’s Crude gaps The leaks reveal A midnight shower… |
Lord Tadafusa
19
Right (M – Win)
ゆふ月よいるさの山の高根よりはるかにめぐる初しぐれかな
| yūzukuyo irusa no yama no takane yori haruka ni meguru hatsushigure kana | On a moonlit night From Irusa Mountain’s High peak In the distance circles A first shower! |
Lord Kanemasa
20
Toshiyori states: in the first poem, the shower sounds chilly! A shower is not something that one hears after getting up at dawn, yet this poem says that one first gets to know about it from the leaks, it seems that the poet has gone to bed, been leaked on, had his garments soaked and then got up and made a fuss. If he has not been leaked upon is this something he heard from someone else the following day? It really is very unclear. There’s a poem ‘Together with me / On my mountain pilgrimage’ which refers to showers falling on this mountain. The poem here refers to the same peak, so it sounds as if it’s referring to monks going around. Is that what it’s about? I am not just finding fault for the sake of it—these poems are unclear. As there’s only so much that can be understood from hearing them, they should tie.
Mototoshi states: one can compose about a shower falling anywhere and there’s no need to bring up a fisherman’s sedge-thatch hut, is there! Furthermore, one gets to know about a shower from the sound of it falling constantly on something like a roof of cedar boards, surely? Would one really be startled by rain of varying intensity falling soundlessly in spring? As for the poem of the Right, while it does not display a playfulness which would please the eye, ‘In the distance circles / A first shower’ is a bit better in the current context.
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 63
Round Thirteen
Left (Tie)
われもいかでよにながらへてすみよしのまつのちとせのゆくすゑもみむ
| ware mo ikade yo ni nagaraete sumiyoshi no matsu no chitose no yukusue mo mimu | Somehow, I, too, Would endure in this world, that Sumiyoshi’s Pine’s thousand years End I would see! |
Masahira
125
Right
たとへけむなみはわがみにあらはれぬこぎゆくふねのあとはほかかは
| tatoekemu nami wa wagami ni arawarenu kogiyuku fune no ato wa hoka ka wa | Might I compare The waves, which on my sorry self Have made their mark, with A boat rowing out, leaving A wake, or if not that then what? [1] |
Chikashige
126
The Left seems to be imagining something very unrealistic. The Right has the poem ‘To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking’ in mind, and appears to have the charming conception of sorrowing over the face of Grand Duke Jiang appearing in the waves on the Wei River, but ‘if not that then what?’ sounds a bit overblown. With that being said, the Left feels like a plea for good fortune, and the Right evokes impermanence. The matters are only distantly connected, and thus in terms of faults and merits they are equal.
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. 世の中をなににたとへむあさぼらけこぎゆく舟のあとのしら浪 yo no naka o / nani ni tatoemu / asaborake / kogiyuku fune no / ato no shiranami ‘This mundane world: / To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking, / A boat rows out / Whitecaps in its wake.’ Novice Mansei (SIS XX: 1327)
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 41
Round Sixteen
Left
くさまくらたびねさびしきやまかげにこのはさそひてしぐれふるなり
| kusamakura tabine sabishiki yamakage ni ko no ha sasoite shigure furunari | On a grassy pillow, Dozing on my travels, lonely In a mountain’s shade, The rustling of the leaves invites A shower to fall. |
Hyōenosuke
81
Right (Win)
すみのえのまつがはひねをまくらにてなみうちそふるしぐれをぞきく
| suminoe no matsu ga haine o makura nite nami uchisouru shigure o zo kiku | At Suminoe Upon the crawling pine roots Have I made my pillow, while Laced with the breaking waves I listen to the showers. |
Lord Naganori
82
The Left’s configuration of ‘the rustling of the leaves invites’, while dozing on one’s journey in the shadow of a mountain, sounds pleasant. While I do wonder about the Right’s diction—concluding with ‘listen to the showers’—in addition to ‘laced with the breaking waves’ sounding pleasant, it also adds the conception of waves beneath ‘the pines of Suminoe’, doesn’t it. I make the Right the winner.
