このたびの祈は空に知りぬらん天降ります住吉の神
| kono tabi no inori wa sora ni shirinuran amakudarimasu sumiyoshi no kami | On this occasion Will my prayers within the skies Be known by, Placed from Heaven, The God of Sumiyoshi! |
Middle Controller of the Left Sanemasa
左中弁実政朝臣
Tag Archives: sumiyoshi
GSIS XX: 1175
Horikawa hyakushu 1597
Tametadake shodo hyakushu 675
SKKS XIX: 1913
Composed when various people produced poems, when Imperial Princess Sōshi of the First Order visited Sumiyoshi.
すみよしの浜松が枝に風ふけば浪のしらゆふかけぬまぞなき
| sumiyoshi no hamamatsu ga e ni kaze fukeba nami no shirayū kakenu ma zo naki | At Sumiyoshi When the branches of the beach-pines Are blown by the wind, The waves with white sacred streamers Are not hung in no place at all. |
Fujiwara no Michitsune
藤原道経
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 19
Left
さえわたる月のひかりやすみよしのまつのはしのぎふれるしらゆき
| saewataru tsuki no hikari ya sumiyoshi no matsu no ha shinogi fureru shirayuki | So chill The moon’s light, that Sumiyoshi’s Pines’ needles seem weighed down With fallen snow. |
Grand Dharma Master Yūsei[i]
37
Right (Win)
月のすむなにはのうらのけしきにはかみのこころもたえずやあるらむ
| tsuki no sumu naniwa no ura no keshiki ni wa kami no kokoro mo taezu ya aruramu | The moon rising above The bay of Naniwa— At the scene Even the Deity’s heart Must be unable to endure… |
Lord Fujiwara no Norimori
Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade
Without Office[ii]
38
The poem of the Left appears pleasant in configuration and sequencing, but it lacks any profundity of thought and simply seems to flow easily. The Right’s poem appears to have some conception, managing to follow ‘Having a sensitive heart: / To such a one would I show / The land of Tsu’[1] and also seems to sound as if it conveys the sense of the old poem about a man finding the bay of Naniwa unbearably fine[2]. With that being said, expanding this to the Deity’s heart as well is charming. Thus, the Right wins.
[1] Sent to someone’s residence, when he was in Tsu province around the beginning of the year. こころあらむ人にみせばやつのくにのなにはわたりのはるのけしきを kokoro aramu / hito ni miseba ya / tsu no kuni no / naniwa watari no / haru no keshiki o ‘I would to a sensitive / Soul show / The land of Tsu / Around Naniwa— / Truly, the scenery of spring!’ Dharma Master Dōin (GSIS I: 43)
[2] Composed as a spring poem, when he presented a hundred-poem sequence. 心なきわが身なれども津の国の難波の春にたへずも有るかな kokoro naki / wagami naredomo / tsu no kuni no / naniwa no haru ni / taezu mo aru kana ‘Insensitive / Is my sorry self, yet / In the land of Tsu / Naniwa in springtime is / Unbearably fine!’ Fujiwara no Suemichi (SZS II: 106/Kyūan hyakushu 413)
[i] Daihōshi Yūsei大法師祐盛
[ii] San’i jūgoige Fujiwara ason Norimori 散位従五位下藤原朝臣憲盛
SIS X: 590
KKS XVII: 906
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 16
Left (Tie)
すみよしのまつのこずゑにふるゆきのつもりまさるとみゆる月かげ
| sumiyoshi no matsu no kozue ni furu yuki no tsumorimasaru to miyuru tsukikage | Sumiyoshi’s Pines’ treetops have Fallen snow upon them, Piled even higher, It seems in the moonlight. |
Lord Taira no Hiromori
Senior Assistant Minister of Justice
Meagre Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade[i]
31
Right
すみよしのはままつがえをこすなみに月のしらゆふかけそへてけり
| sumiyoshi no hamamatsu ga e o kosu nami ni tsuki no shirayū kakesoetekeri | At Sumiyoshi The pine trees on the beach are Washed by waves, with The moon’s sacred streamers Hung, trailing, upon them. |
Grand Dharma Master Chikyō[ii]
32
Both Left and Right lack any particular defects and sound elegant—they tie.
[i] Jūgoige-shu gyōbu taifu Taira ason Hiromori 従五位下守刑部大輔平朝臣広盛
[ii] Daihōshi Chikyō大法師智経
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 15
Left (Win)
すみよしのまつにとはばやおいがよにこよひばかりの月はみきやと
| sumiyoshi no matsu ni towaba ya oi ga yo ni koyoi bakari no tsuki wa miki ya to | To Sumiyoshi’s Pines I would ask, Through all the ancient ages of your lives, Is tonight, simply, The finest moon you’ve seen? |
Kyō, in service to the Regent’s Household[i]
29
Right
すみよしのうらさえわたる月みればまつのこかげぞくもりなりける
| sumiyoshi no ura saewataru tsuki mireba matsu no kokage zo kumori narikeru | When across Sumiyoshi’s Bay, so chill crossing The moon I see, The shadows from the pines are The only clouds. |
Lord Minamoto no Suehiro
Junior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade
Without Office[ii]
30
While the Left’s poem has no remarkable elements, I must say that the configuration of ‘tonight, simply’ is pleasant. As for the Right’s poem, in addition to it being quite commonplace, when composing about the brightness of the moon, to say that something is the only cloud, if you say that ‘the shadows from the pines are / The only clouds’ it certainly sounds as if that’s what they are at the very least [and thus imply that Sumiyoshi is cloudy, when the topic is the brightness of the moon], so I make the Left the winner.
[i] Sessho no ie no Kyō摂政家卿
[ii] San’i jūgoijō Minamoto ason Suehiro 散位従五位上源朝臣季広