Tag Archives: Onoue

Winter II: 11

Left.

雪埋む松を緑に吹返し見せも聞かせも山おろしの風

yuki uzumu
matsu o midori ni
fukikaeshi
mise mo kikase mo
yama oroshi no kaze
Buried in the snows,
The pines to green
Are blown back,
Sight and sound both from
The wind down the mountains.

Lord Ari’ie.

561

Right.

さえさえて梢の雲を返す也尾上の松の雪の浦風

saesaete
kozue no kumo o
kaesu nari
onoue no matsu no
yuki no urakaze
Frozen with chill,
The treetop-touching clouds
Fly away;
The pines of Onoue,
Blown free from the snows by the wind from off the bay…

Ietaka.

562

Neither team finds any fault with the other’s poem.

Shunzei’s judgement: This round the poems of Left and Right both describe memorable scenes. The Left’s ‘pines to green are blown back’ (matsu o midori ni fukikaeshi) and the Right’s ‘pines of Onoue, blown free from the snows by the wind from off the bay’ (onoue no matsu no yuki no urakaze) are equivalently excellent in conception and diction [kokoro kotoba shōretsu naku miehaberi]. This must be a tie of quality [yoki ji].