samushiro ni iku yo no aki o shinobikinu ima hata onaji uji no hashihime
Beneath a scanty coverlet How many autumns Have I endured alone? Now, indeed, I am the same As the maid at Uji Bridge![1]
515
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. さむしろに衣かたしきこよひもや我をまつらむうぢのはしひめ samushiro ni / koromo katashiki / koyoi mo ya / ware o matsuramu / uji no hashihime ‘Upon a scanty coverlet / Beneath a single robe / On this night, too, / I wonder, does she await me, / My maid at Uji Bridge.’ Anonymous (KKS XIV: 689)
Here’s the second video on the topics and images used in waka on the season of winter. This one covers: Topography (winter mountains, ice and icicles); Life(style) (being sealed in winter, blankets and bedding); and Events (the ceremony for the Recitation of the Buddhas’ Names (butsumyōe 仏名会)).
Left and Right together state: we find no faults to mention.
In judgement: the conception of being lost in thought of another’s sleeves ‘in bed on a sleepless night frost forms on my chilly blankets’ (nenu yo no toko no shimo no samushiro) is certainly elegant. The scene in the Right’s poem, with the blanket divided in half, with one covered with dust, and the other where the speaker lies lovesick, is distasteful and I do not find it appealing, so thus, the Left wins.
