Tag Archives: sasagani

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 256

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Composed when I had instructed various people to compose on ‘In the autumn fields / Drop whitened dewdrops: / Can they be jewels’.[i]

ささがにの玉ぬくいとのををよわみ風にみだれて露ぞこぼるる

sasagani no
tama nuku ito no
o o yowami
kaze ni midarete
tsuyu zo koboruru		A tiny crab, the spider
Strings gems on her web,
Threads so fragile, that
Confused by the wind
The dewdrops scatter.

[i] A reference to: Composed at a poetry competition at Prince Koresada’s house. 秋ののにおくしらつゆは玉なれやつらぬきかくるくものいとすぢ  aki no no ni / oku shiratsuyu wa / tama nare ya / tsuranukikakuru / kumo no itosuji ‘In the autumn fields / Drop whitened dewdrops: / Can they be jewels, / Pierced through and strung / On spider webs?’ Fun’ya no Asayasu (KKS IV: 225). Sanetomo has used the initial part of the Kokinshū poem as the topic for composition.

Horikawa-in enjo awase

Horikawa-in Enjo Awase 11

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Later, on the second day of the Fifth Month, it appears that everyone, quite losing their composure, decorated their replies extravagantly and even painted pictures beneath them; later, on the seventh day of the same month, because His Majesty sent instructions to the ladies who had been present to compose love poems and attend him, on that day they attended him to present their poems.

ほととぎす待つにつけてもささがにのいづれの世にかしる時ぞ思ふ

hototogisu
matsu ni tsukete mo
sasagani no
izure no yo ni ka
shiru toki zo omou		A cuckoo
I do await, and yet
The tiny crab—
On which night is it?—
Will know the time, I hope!

Echizen
21

しるし有りてこぬよもあれや時鳥中中かけしくものふるまひ

shirushi arite
konu yo mo are ya
hototogisu
nakanaka kakeshi
kumo no furumai		Should there be a sign,
Would there really be a night he failed to come,
That cuckoo?
Truly to be trusted was
The spider’s spinning…

The Major Counsellor
22

A picture of a spider spinning a web.
Image by Ada K from Pixabay
Poetry Competition in Six Hundred Rounds

Love V: 23

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Left (Tie).
隔てける籬の島のわりなきに住む甲斐なしや千賀の塩釜

hedatekeru
magaki no shima no
warinasa ni
sumu kai nashi ya
chika no shiogama		 Barring our way is
The fence – Magaki Isle:
So unreasonable
That living close is pointless, as if
We were at Chika’s salt-kilns!

Kenshō
885

Right.
忍ぶ草竝ぶ軒端の夕暮に思ひをかはすさゝがにの糸

shinobugusa
narabu nokiba no
yūgure ni
omoi o kawasu
sasagani no ito		 A weeping fern lies
Between our almost touching eaves;
In the evening
Love will pass
Along the spider’s thread.

Ietaka
886

The Right state: the Left’s ‘Magaki Isle’ (magaki no shima) and ‘Chika’s salt kiln’s’ (chika no shiogama) do not seem that nearby, do they? They only evoke closeness through wordplay. The Right state: we find no faults to indicated in the Left’s poem.

In judgement: the Left’s ‘Magaki Isle’ and ‘Chika’s salt kilns’, even if they are not that close, do not display a lack of technique in the conception of the current composition. I do wonder what to think about ‘so unreasonable’ (warinasa ni), though. The Right’s weeping ferns, with the spider’s behaviour transmitting the feelings of love, does not seem unreasonable either. This round, too, the poems are comparable and should tie.