yo to tomo ni harezu mo aru kana kogakurete yamabito ikade aku to shiruran
Even with the end of night, It never clears at all! Hidden ‘neath the trees How can a mountain man Ever find the light?
11
Right
よもの山こぐらくなりてなつのよの月ばかりこそもりてみゆらめ
yomo no yama koguraku narite natsu no yo no tsuki bakari koso morite miyurame
All around, the mountains Are dark beneath the trees; On a summer night ‘Tis truly only the moon That one might see dripping between them!
12
This topic refers to a hunted stag concealed among the trees in the summer mountains. There is not a particular strong feeling of either evergreen or other types of mountain forests,[ii] but the Left’s poem has ‘Even with the end of night’, forgetting that this implies a season of biting wind and showers striking the leaves on the trees—thus the darkness here is excessively conceived. While the Right takes ‘dark shade’ as an opportunity to compose with the elevated conception of the moon dripping between the trees—and surpasses the peaks in doing this—I wonder if the conceptions of both poems don’t contain brightness? Thus, both Left and Right are examples of the ‘Reizei Palace’,[iii] so I would decide on a tie for these.
さ月山こぐらきかげのしげしさはまさりてみゆる人もなきかな
satsuki yama koguraki kage no shigeshisa wa masarite miyuru hito mo naki kana
The Fifth Month mountains Dark shade beneath the trees is So deep that Skillfully seeing— There no one who can do that!
hito shirezu harenu nageki no aru mono o amaneku terase aki no yo no tsuki
Unknown to all A grief which never clears I have, so Shine without restraint, O, moon this autumn night!
His Excellency, Nagazane, Former Assistant Governor General of Dazai 3
Right
山の端のうき雲晴れてすみのぼる月と共にもゆくこころかな
yama no ha no ukigumo harete suminoboru tsuki to tomo ni yuku kokoro kana
At the mountains’ edge The drifting clouds unfurl, and Clearly climbing With the moon Goes my spirit!
Lady Hyōenokami 4
In the poem of the Left, the expression following ‘A grief which never clears / I have, so’ is both forceful and lacking in gentility; in addition, the poem of the Right’s ‘drifting clouds clear away’ and what follows seems stagnant, so the light of the moon these nights seems to be of the same standard.
koite nuru haru no nezame ni nagametsutsu hito shirenu ne o nakanu yo zo naki
Burning with love, I fall asleep, In springtime to awake, Always, gazing on the falling rain— Secretly my sobs Slipping out—there’s no night when that happens not!
