kasugano wa toshi no uchi ni wa yuki tsumite haru wa wakana no ouru narikeri
Kasuga Plain Within the year past Garnered snow, where In springtime fresh herbs Grow up.[i]
19
[i] See: Composed for a painting on a folding screen, showing the picking of fresh herbs on a plain where the snow had fallen. かすが野の雪のむらぎえかきわけて誰がためつめるわかななるらん kasugano no / yuki no muragie / kakiwakete / ta ga tame tsumeru / wakana naruran ‘Across Kasuga Plain, / Spotted with snowmelt, / They push their way; / For who might he be garnering / Those fresh herbs?’ Minamoto no Toshiyori (Sanboku kikashū I: 28)
kyō made mo kozue wa fuyu no iro nagara kozo ni wa kawaru yuki no shitagusa
Until today The treetops winter’s Hues did hold, but With the change to the year before Grasses grow up ‘neath the snow.
Lord Yasusue 173
Right
くれはどりあやにながめのなりゆくかみどりの空にあそぶいとゆふ
kurehadori aya ni nagame no nariyuku ka midori no sora ni asobu itoyū
A chequered Pattern–when I gaze out how strange It becomes: In the verdant skies Sports heat haze…
The Minister of the Centre 174
Although it sounds a bit difficult to grasp the sense of the Left’s ‘grasses ‘neath the snow with the change to the year before’, there’s nothing wrong with composing about grasses growing beneath fallen snow, so the configuration is pleasant. The Right’s poem, too, has no faults to mention, so this round, too, should tie.
haru no no no wakana wa kimi ga tame ni koso ōku no toshi o tsumamu to wa omoe
In the springtime meadows Fresh herbs, for my Lord’s Sake, indeed, In many a year Will I pick, I feel!
12
The Right’s poem was inferior, but tied as it contained an element of Felicitation.
[i] This poem is included in Shoku gosenshū (I: 34), attributed to Kanemori, with the headnote ‘A poem from the Poetry Match held by the Reikeiden Junior Consort’.
kagamiyama haru kuru kage ya mietsuramu tani no uguisu idete naku nari
Upon Mirror Mountain Signs of coming spring Have appeared, it seems, for In the valleys warblers Have emerged to sing.
8
[i] This poem is included in Shūishū (I: 10), attributed to Middle Counsellor [Fujiwara no] Asatada, with the headnote ‘From a palace poetry match on the 29th day of the Third Month, Tenryaku 10’ [12.5.956]. It is also included in Shūishō (I: 6) as an anonymous poem in some texts, or attributed to Nakatsukasa in others, with the headnote ‘When a poetry match was held at the palace on the 29th day of the Third Month, Tenryaku 10’.
