Warblers
Left (Win)
うぐひすのこゑなかりせばゆききえぬやまざといかではるをしらまし
| uguisu no koe nakariseba yuki kienu yamazato to ikade haru o shiramashi | Should the warbler’s Song be made to cease, then though The snow has vanished from This mountain retreat, how Would one know ‘tis spring? |
Nakatsukasa
7[i]
Right
かがみやまはるくるかげやみえつらむたにのうぐひすいでてなくなり
| 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’.
The only record of this poetry match’s existence is in the headnote to the poems in Motozane-shū (180, 181), which simply reads ‘From a poetry match’. Hagitani (1958, 418) suggests that, as these poems are recorded separately in this work from Motozane’s other poems for poetry matches, they are most likely from a different contest, the details of which have now been lost. Given the topic of ‘Cuckoos’, however, it most likely will have taken place in the late spring or early summer.
うのはなの影にかくれて今日までぞ山時鳥声はをしまむ
| unohana no kage ni kakurete kyō made zo yama hototogisu koe wa oshimamu | Within the deutzia’s Shade concealed Until today The mountain cuckoo Seems to regret his song. |
1
いまよりは声なをしみそ時鳥五月待つまのほどぞあるらし
| ima yori wa koe na oshimi so hototogisu satsuki matsu ma no hodo zo arurashi | From now on Your song do not regret, O, cuckoo, For to await the Fifth Month Some time there still seems to be! |
2
Round Eleven
The Beginning of Summer[1]
Left (Tie)
なくこゑはまだきかねどもせみのはのうすきころもをたちぞきてける
| naku koe wa mada kikanedomo semi no ha no usuki koromo wa tachi zo kitekeru | Their buzzing song Is not yet to be heard, yet Cicada wing Light clothing Has been cut to wear today. |
Yoshinobu
22[2]
Right
夏ごろもたちいづるけふは花ざくらかたみのいろもぬぎやかふらん
| natsugoromo tachi’izuru kyō wa hanazakura katami no iro mo nugi ya kauran | Summer garb: Cut out from today, departing The blossom of the cherries’ Hues—a keepsake—, too, Will I put off and change? |
Nakatsukasa
23
The Left’s poem gives the impression of the beginning of summer, but the Right’s ‘Sewn from today, departing’ suggests that it is the year that is doing so. In addition, it seems to use ‘put off and change’, and so sounds as if time has passed more swiftly than in the Left’s poem. Thus, because the poems’ quality is about the same, I make this a tie.
[1] Shuka 首夏. This Sinitic expression was also used to refer to the the Fourth Month.
Round Four
Left (Win)
あたらしきただひとこゑをほととぎすいかなるさとになきとよむらん
| atarashiki tada hitokoe o hototogisu ika naru sato ni nakitoyomuran | How fine Simply is your single call, O, cuckoo, What might be the estate which Resounds with your song? |
Cell of the Fragrant Elephant
21
Right
いかばかりあはれならましほととぎすかくまたれてしきなかましかば
| ika bakari aware naramashi hototogisu kaku matareteshi kinakamashikaba | How deeply Moving might it be? For a cuckoo To have long awaited and He then comes to call… |
Cell of Everlasting Truth
22
In regard to the Left’s poem, in the Poetry Match held in Engi 3, there was a compostion which went ‘Until in Kataoka / The plains of Ashita / Does resound / The mountain cuckoos / Are singing now!’[i] When this was recited, His Majesty laughed and so it was not read aloud all the way to the end. The expression ‘resound’ is poor. The diction of the Right’s poem is terribly stilted and really doesn’t trip off the tongue, but strictly speaking it has no particular faults. I make it the winner.
The Left’s poem seems move my heart to the greatest degree. However, it really is the case that ‘resounding with song’ is something which happens after hearing it—that’s when it would seem right to compose ‘come resound with song’. It’s extremely imprudent to guess and say that somewhere ‘might resound with song’ without hearing it. And yet, there is the conception of there being times, too, when the cuckoo doesn’t sing. In the Right’s poem ‘To have long awaited’ lacks harmony, and I would want there to be a break there, so I should say that the Left wins.
[i] This poem is Teiji’in uta’awase 48.
Tsurayuki’s Poetry Match,[i] 28th day of the Second Month, Tengyō 2[ii]
The beginning of spring.
Left
白雪のみにふりながら梅の花をりつるほどに春は来にけり
| shirayuki no mi ni furinagara mume no hana oritsuru hodo ni haru wa kinikeri | Snow, so white, Falling upon my flesh, While the plum blossom, Branches are breaking Spring has come! |
1
Right
鶯の巣立ちし日よりはるばるとおもひは音にぞまづなかれける
| uguisu no sudachishi hi yori harubaru to omoi wa ne ni zo mazu nakareru | Since the day the bush warbler Departed his nest, Endlessly Have I thought his song For the present has not been here. |
2
[i] Tsurayuki uta’awase 貫之歌合
[ii] 21 March 939
Round Twenty-Two
Left (Win)
五月雨にやすらふ暮の時鳥そなたの雲に声なへだてそ
| samidare ni yasurau kure no hototogisu sonata no kumo ni koe na hedate so | In a summer shower, Hesitating, at twilight, O, cuckoo, Let not the intervening clouds Interrupt your song! |
Shō
43
Right
過ぎぬなりさやはちぎりし時鳥なく音ばかりはこぞにかはらで
| suginunari saya wa chigirishi hototogisu naku ne bakari wa kozo ni kawarade | And so you’ve flown by— Is that what you vowed, O, cuckoo? For only the sound of your song Is unchanged from the year before… |
Nagatsuna
44
The Left’s poem doesn’t seem bad. The Right poem’s ‘For only the sound of your song is unchanged from the year before’ is somewhat difficult to grasp—if the cuckoo’s call has not changed, then what has? After all, cuckoos have ‘the voice of yesteryear’[1]—among other references—so it’s obvious that their calls don’t change, so the Left is somewhat better, I think.
[1] KKS III: 137
