Tag Archives: Ono

Kinkai wakashū 209

Bush clover at the roadside.

みちのべのをのの夕霧たちかへりみてこそゆかめ秋はぎの花

michi no be no
ono no yūgiri
tachikaeri
mite koso yukame
akihagi no hana
By the roadside
Across the meadows evening mists
Rise and fall endlessly;
Thus would I go and see
The autumn bush clover blooms.[1]

[1] An allusive variation on: For a poetry competition held in the Tenryaku era. 春ふかみゐてのかは浪たちかへり見てこそゆかめ山吹の花 haru fukami / ide no kawanami / tachikaeri / mite koso yukame / yamabuki no hana ‘In the depths of spring / Waves on the river at Idé / Rise and fall endlessly; / Thus would I go and see / The kerria blooms…’ Minamoto no Shitagō (SIS I: 68).

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 08

Round Eight

Left (Tie)

うづら鳴く遠里小野の小萩はら心なき身も過ぎうかりけり

uzura naku
tōsato ono no
kohagiwara
kokoronaki mi mo
sugi’ukarikeri
Quails cry from
Tōsato plain’s
Bush-clover groves—
Even one as insensitive as I
Finds it hard to pass them by.

Kenshō Sukenokimi
15

Right

あきの野の花に心をそめしよりくさかやひめもあはれとぞ思ふ

aki no no no
hana ni kokoro o
someshi yori
kusakayahime mo
aware to zo omou
Since the autumn meadows’
Blooms my heart
Did fill, for
Kusakayahime
Fondness, I feel!

Tōren
16

As for the Left, if one is composing about bush-clover groves, then I would want the poem to mention Miyagi Plain. As for the Right’s Kusakayahime, I wondered if she appeared in the Chronicles of Japan, but in that work you have Izanagi-no-miko and Izanami-no-miko, who wed and create the first land, Akitsushima, and then many provinces, mountains, rivers and seas and thus trees and plants, too. It further states that the primordial tree was Kukunochi and the primordial plant was Kayanohime. The conception of the Right’s poem does not differ from this, yet it continues to mention Kusakayahime, which is unclear. I get the feeling that this poem was composed with the works composed for the banquet held for the completion of the Chronicles of Japan in mind, which refer to each and every spring and the ancient Kayanohime, but even these poems did not differ in conception from that of the main work. It’s impossible to pick a loser or winner.

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 02

Round Two

Left

鶯は春をしりてもなきぬなる我が身は春をしらでこそなけ

uguisu wa
haru o shiritemo
nakinunaru
wa ga mi wa haru o
shirade koso nake
The warbler
Knowing of the springtime
Cries out, but
My sorry self, of spring
All unknowing, cries.

Masashige
3

Right (Win)

杣人よをののおとしばしとどめなん谷の鶯はつねなくなり

somabito yo
ono no oto shibashi
todomenan
tani no uguisu
hatsune nakunari
O, woodcutter,
Your axe’s sound, briefly
Won’t you stop?
For the warbler in the valley
Has let out his first call…

Kenshō
4

The Left’s poem, too, is smooth; the Right poem’s diction is halting, but its conception does not sound bad. It should win, I’d say.

Love X: 22

Left (Win)
斧の柄を何かあやしと思けんしばしの恋も袖は朽ちけり

ono no e o
nani ka ayashi to
omoiken
shibashi no koi mo
sode wa kuchikeri
An axe haft –
What is there strange in that
I wonder?
For with this brief love
My sleeves have rotted…

Kenshō
1183

Right
あさましや心をしほる山人も身におふ程の歎きをぞこる

asamashi ya
kokoro o shioru
yamabito mo
mi ni ou hodo no
nageki o zo koru
How surprising!
Heartbroken
A woodcutter, too,
Is burdened by
The tree of grief he fells…

Lord Takanobu
1184

Left and Right together state: we find no faults to mention.

In judgement: For the Left, I wonder how long a ‘brief love’ (shibashi no koi) lasts? For one’s sleeves to have rotted, surely a certain amount of time must have passed, but in configuration the poem is certainly elegant. The Right’s woodcutter (yamabito) sounds like he is saying rather too much about himself. The Left should win.