Tag Archives: sode

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 11

Round Eleven

Tanabata

Left (Win)

七夕はたえぬ契りをうれしともこよひばかりやおもひしるらん

tanabata wa
taenu chigiri o
ureshi tomo
koyoi bakari ya
omoishiruran
The Weaver Maid’s
Unending vow is
A source of joy, yet
Is it only on this night
That she truly feels it?

Shun’e
21

Right

天の河わたるこよひや七夕は中中袖をぬらさざるらん

ama no kawa
wataru koyoi ya
tanabata wa
nakanaka sode o
nurasazaruran
The River of Heaven
Does she cross tonight, so
The Weaver Maid
Truly, her sleeves
Dampens not, I think!

Yorisuke
22

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 03

Plum

Round Three

Left (Tie)

あしがきのおくゆかしくもみゆるかな誰がすむ宿の梅の立えぞ

ashigaki no
oku yukashiku mo
miyuru kana
ta ga sumu yado no
ume no tachie zo
A fence of reeds and
Within, how charming
They appear!
Who is it dwells at this house of
Beckoning branches of plum?

Lord Kiyosuke
5

Right

ひばりあがる春の日ぐらし袖たれてかきねの梅の花みるわれは

hibari agaru
haru no higurashi
sode tarete
kakine no ume no
hana miru ware wa
Skylarks soar
In springtime all day long,
Dangling my sleeves, upon
The plum inside the lattice fence,
At the blossom gaze I…

Kenshō
6

The Left is in cliched style, while the final line of the Right is interrupted—a tie, I think.

Kinkai wakashū 110

Composed to accompany a picture on a folding screen of a traveller at the Bay of Tako, picking wisteria blooms.

たこのうらの岸の藤なみ立ちかへりをらではゆかじ袖はぬるとも

tako no ura no
kishi no fujinami
tachikaeri
orade wa yukaji
sode wa nuru tomo
At the Bay of Tako
Upon the shore wisteria waves
Break, returning
Never would I go without picking them
Though it wet my sleeves.
A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

Entō ōn’uta’awase 5

Round 5

Left (Win)

朝日影まだ出でやらぬ足引の山はかすみの色ぞうつろふ

asahi kage
mada ideyaranu
ashihiki no
yama wa kasumi no
iro zo utsurou
The morning sunlight
Has yet to fall upon
The leg-wearying
Mountains, yet the haze’s
Hues are shifting.

Takasuke, Gentleman-in-Waiting
9

Right

山姫のかすみのそでも紅に光そへたる朝日影かな

yamahime no
kasumi no sode mo
kurenai ni
hikari soetaru
asahi kage kana
The mountain princess has
Her sleeves of haze turned
Scarlet
Draped with light by
The morning sunshine!

Shimotsuke
10

The Left’s poem has no faults worth pointing out; the poem of the Right’s ‘morning sunlight draping scarlet light across the sleeves of haze’ is overly gorgeous, I think, while the Left seems perfectly beautiful, so it should win.

SKKS XIV: 1323

On the conception of forgotten love.

袖の露もあらぬ色にぞ消えかへるうつればかはるなげきせしまに

sode no tsuyu mo
aranu iro ni zo
kiekaeru
utsureba kawaru
nagekiseshi ma ni
The dewdrops on my sleeves now
Lack any hue at all
Fading once more,
Revealing the change
To my lengthy sorrow…[1]

The Senior Retired Emperor

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

[1] An allusive variation on: KKS II: 113; and Genji monogatari 463.