Composed when it was said that a poetry competition was to be held at the residence of the Middle Captain Lady of the Bedchamber in the Ninna period.[1]
おしと思心は糸によられなん散る花ごとに貫きてとどめむ
oshi to omoFu kokoro Fa ito ni yorarenan tiru Fana goto ni nukite todomemu
If regrets Within my heart should into threads Be spun, then Through every scattered blossom Would I sew to hold them here…
Sosei
[1] It was taboo to record the personal names of noble women of high rank unless they were made empress. The Ninna 仁和 period began on the 11th day of the Third Month, 885, and lasted until the 30th day of the Fifth Month, 889. ‘Lady of the Bedchamber’ (miyasudokoro 御息所) was a title given to imperial consorts who had given birth to a prince, while ‘Middle Captain’ (chūjō 中将) was a military position in the palace guards. Contemporary readers would have been able to identify who the ‘Lady who had given birth to an imperial prince and whose father held the position of Middle Captain during the Ninna period’ was, but modern scholarship has not done so; nor have records of this poetry competition survived.
Composed when it was said that a poetry competition was to be held at the residence of the Ninna Middle Captain Lady of the Bedchamber.
花のちることやわびしき春霞たつたの山のうぐひすのこゑ
Fana no tiru
koto ya wabisiki
Farugasumi
tatuta no yama no
uguFisu no kowe
The falling of the flowers
Is sad, indeed;
In the spring haze
On Tatsuta Mountain
A warbler cries…
Fujiwara no Chikage
藤原後蔭
1
Composed when it was said that a poetry competition was to be held at the residence of the Ninna Middle Captain Lady of the Bedchamber.
惜しと思ふ心は糸に縒られなむ散る花ごとに貫きてとどめむ
osi to omoFu
kokoro Fa ito ni
yorarenamu
tiru Fana goto ni
nukite todomemu
A regretful
Heart with threads
Does seem to be entangled;
Every single scattered bloom
Will I thread on them to keep.
Neither side has any comments to make about these two poems.
Shunzei says both poems possess a ‘scintillating beauty’, but wonders whether the Right’s hasn’t borrowed too heavily from the Monk Sosei’s poem:
Composed as a Spring Poem
おもふどち春の山邊に打群れてそこともいはぬ旅寢してしか
omoFudoti
Faru no yamabe ni
utimurete
soko tomo iFanu
tabine sitesika
My friends,
In springtime in the mountain meadows
Did we gather,
Heedless of our place,
Wanted we to sleep out on our trip!
KKS II: 126
However, using the variation to borrow lodging from a warbler is, indeed, ‘scintillating’ and neither poems ‘sounds the least bit old-fashioned’. Hence, the round must be a tie.