Tag Archives: shika

Koresada shinnō-ke uta’awase 24

ひとしれぬなみだやそらにくもりつつあきのしぐれとふりまさるらむ[1]

hito shirenu
namida ya sora ni
kumoritsutsu
aki no shigure to
furimasaruramu
Unknown to all
With tears the skies
Are ever clouded;
The autumn drizzle
Seems to fall the harder.

47

あきくれば山とよむまでなくしかに我おとらめやひとりぬるよは

aki kureba
yama toyomu made
naku shika ni
ware otorame ya
hitori nuru yo wa
When the autumn comes
The mountains echo with
The belling stags;
Will they lose to me
These nights I sleep alone?

48


[1] This poem appears in Fubokushō (5546), where it is attributed to [Ariwara no] Motokata.

Koresada shinnō-ke uta’awase 15

山ざとは秋こそものはかなしけれねざめねざめにしかはなきつつ

yamazato wa
aki koso mono wa
kanashikere
nezame nezame ni
shika wa nakitsutsu
A mountain retreat in
Autumn is much more
Sad;
Waking, ever waking
To the stags constant cries…

29

ことのねをかぜのしらべにまかせてはたつたひめこそあきはひくらし

koto no ne o
kaze no shirabe ni
makasete wa
tatsustahime koso
aki wa hikurashi
A zither’s strains
By the wind tuned
Up—
Princess Tatsuta
Is plucking out the notes of autumn, it seems.

30

Koresada shinnō-ke uta’awase 14

あさぎりにかたまどはしてなくかりのこゑぞたえせぬ秋の山べは

asagiri ni
kata madowashite
naku kari no
koe zo taesenu
aki no yamabe wa
In the morning mists
Having lost their way,
Crying, the geese
Call out ceaselessly
From the autumn mountain meadows.

27

山ざとはあきこそことにかなしけれしかのなくねにめをさましつつ[1]

yamazato wa
aki koso koto ni
kanashikere
shika no naku ne ni
me o samashitsutsu
In a mountain retreat
The autumn, especially,
Is lonely.
The belling of the stags
Continually awakens me.

28


[1] This poem also occurs in Kokinshū (IV: 214), where it is attributed to [Mibu no] Tadamine.

Love VIII: 24

Left (Tie)
この比の心の底をよそに見ば鹿鳴く野邊の秋の夕暮

kono koro no
kokoro no soko o
yoso ni miba
shika naku nobe no
aki no yūgure
Of late
Of the depths of my heart
Were you to catch a distant glimpse:
A stag belling in the meadow
On an autumn evening…

A Servant Girl
1067

Right
暮れかゝる裾野の露に鹿鳴きて人待つ袖も涙そふ也

kurekakaru
susono no tsuyu ni
shika nakite
hito matsu sode mo
namida sou nari
Twilight
Drapes dewfall on the mountains’ skirts,
With a stag’s sad cry;
Awaiting him, my sleeves, too,
Are wet with tears.

Nobusada
1068

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

In judgement: it would be impossible to ever exhaust the overtones of feeling in ‘a stag belling in the meadow on an autumn evening’ (shika naku nobe no aki no yūgure) in the Left’s poem; in the Right’s poem the configuration and conception of ‘awaiting him, my sleeves, too, are wet with tears’ (hito matsu sode mo namida sou nari) is richly evocative. I find it extremely hard to put both poems down, so this round, again, is a tie of quality.