Topic unknown
そのことといはぬ涙のわびしきはただにたもとのぬるるなりけり
| sono koto to iwanu namida no wabishiki wa tada ni tamoto no nururu narikeri | Of that I’ll not speak—tears Of lonely sadness Simply have my sleeves Left drenched. |
Tsurayuki
Tag Archives: tamoto
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 16
Round Four
Left (M – Tie)
白砂の霜よに置きてみつれども移ふ菊はまがはざりけり
| shirotae no shimo yo ni okite mitsuredomo utsurou kiku wa magawazarikeri | White as mulberry cloth. Frost has fallen tonight I see, and yet The faded chrysanthemums I can clearly tell apart. |
Lord Masakane
31
Right (T – Win)
八重菊の花の袂をあかずとや霜のうはぎを猶かさぬらん
| yaegiku no hana no tamoto o akazu to ya shimo no uwagi o nao kasanuran | Of eightfold chrysanthemum Bloomed sleeves I cannot get my fill, but Is a frosty jacket Yet laid upon them? |
Lord Tadafusa
32
Toshiyori states: the assemble company have stated about the first poem that in the absence of the moon or the stars it would difficult to distinguish chrysanthemums from the frost, and it certainly sounds like this would be the case. In the latter poem, we need to think of who it is that is feeling that they cannot get their fill of bloomed sleeves—the person wearing them should be included, or if the chrysanthemums are, perhaps, the subject, then ‘eightfold chrysanthemum’ is an error. Even so, the style of the poem seems elevated.
Mototoshi states: the poem stating ‘White as mulberry cloth. / Frost has fallen tonight’ is a bit hackneyed, and it then continues ‘The faded chrysanthemums / I can clearly tell apart’—I question whether one would really mistake faded chrysanthemums and frost. As for the Right’s poem, which says ‘Bloomed sleeves / I cannot get my fill’, well, this really is difficult to grasp. I spent quite a bit of time going back and forth agonizing over whether these were a person’s sleeves or those of the chrysanthemum! I feel that the diction in both poems is skillful, but there’s a lack of necessary information, so it’s impossible to decide a winner or loser here.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 11
Round Eleven
Left
さごろもの袂はせばしかづけども時雨の雨は心してふれ
| sagoromo no tamoto wa sebashi kazukedomo shigure no ame wa kokoroshite fure | My night robe’s Sleeves are narrow: I cover myself, yet, O rain shower, Fall with care! |
Lord Toshitaka
21
Right (Both Judges – Win)
はつ時雨音信しより水ぐきの岡の梢の色をしぞ思ふ
| hatsushigure otozureshi yori mizuguki no oka no kozue no iro o shi zo omou | Since the first shower Came to call, Mizuguki Hill’s treetops’ Hues fill my thoughts… |
Lord Tokimasa
22
Toshiyori states: the poem on night robes has ‘Fall with care!’ – is this expressing regret over getting wet? In addition, there’s ‘I cover myself, yet’: it would have been preferable to have this element first. The poem on the ‘first shower’ is not that remarkable, yet it does sound smooth. ‘Hues fill my thoughts’ feels conspicuously old-fashioned, and yet composing using ‘Mizuguki’ seem superior.
Mototoshi states: what on earth is the poet doing saying his ‘night robe’ is ‘narrow’? In the Code of the Shijō Major Counsellor this is indicted to be a bad thing—‘a shallow poem with weighty words’! The poem of the Right has ‘Since the first shower / Came to call’ and I feel that this is how a poem on showers ought to be. Saying ‘Hill’s treetops’ / Hues fill my thoughts’ is a bit trite, but still charming, so this is superior, isn’t it.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 07
Round Seven
Left (Both Judges – Win)
音にさへ袂をぬらす時雨かな槙の板屋のよはの寝覚に
| oto ni sae tamoto o nurasu shigure kana maki no itaya ni yowa no nezame ni | Even the sound Does soak my sleeves with A shower Striking my roof of cedar boards, Awaking at midnight… |
Lord Sadanobu
13
Right
しぐれとて柞の杜にたちよれば木のはとともに降りかかるかな
| shigure tote hahaso no mori ni tachiyoreba ko no ha to tomo ni furikakaru kana | When with a shower’s fall Within the oak forest I head to stand Together with the leaves, It strikes me as it falls! |
Lord Munekuni
14
Toshiyori states: the first poem’s composition on one’s sleeves getting soaked on hearing a sound is extremely charming. It sounds like that’s really how it is. The latter poem, too, is smooth, and the final line appears to have had some thought put into it, so I dread having to say that the first poem wins.
Mototoshi states: ‘a shower at midnight upon a roof of cedar boards’ is a particularly superlative image, and that this would drench one’s sleeves is also extremely charming. While ‘the oak forest’ does not appear bad, it’s not that remarkable, and ‘waking at midnight’ is something that certainly occurs, I feel.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 02
Round Two
Left (T – Tie; M – Win)
あやしくも時雨にかへる袂かなゐなの笠はらさして行けども
| ayashiku mo shigure ni kaeru tamoto kana ina no kasawara sashite yukedomo | How strange that From the shower I shelter Beneath my sleeves! Though into the umbrella of the dwarf-bamboo groves of Ina Is where I’m heading… |
A Court Lady
3
Right
ぬるれども嬉しくもあるか紅葉ばの色増す雨の雫とおもへば
| nuredomo ureshiku mo aru ka momijiba no iro masu ame no shizuku to omoeba | Soaked, yet Happy am I! For the scarlet leaves Take on brighter hues with these rain Drops, I feel… |
Lord Akikuni
4
Toshiyori states: The first poem’s section on ‘the umbrella of the dwarf-bamboo groves of Ina’ is well expressed, but then is ‘shower I shelter’ referring to clothing? The second poem can be read as meaning that the speaker is happily being soaked by raindrops standing beneath scarlet leaves on one particular day, but getting drenched by any old shower, even if it’s one which stains leaves scarlet is not something that would make one happy and, sounds tedious. Both poems sound vague, so they should tie.
Mototoshi states: ‘the shower I shelter / Beneath my sleeves’ is better than ‘Happy am I!’
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 45
Round Twenty
Left
たびねするいそのとまやのむらしぐれあはれをなみのうちそへてける
| tabinesuru iso no tomaya no murashigure aware o nami no utchisoetekeru | Dozing on my travels In a sedge-thatched hut upon the rocky shore, The cloudbursts’ Sadness with that of the waves Is laced. |
Lord Sane’ie
89
Right (Win)
もりもあへずまだきにぬるるたもとかなこずゑしぐるるまつのしたぶし
| mori mo aezu mada ki ni nururu tamoto kana kozue shigururu matsu no shitabushi | No drips Yet have come to my soaking Sleeves— The treetops showered, as Beneath the pines I lay me down. |
Atsuyori
90
The Left’s sound of the waves ‘In a sedge-thatched hut upon the rocky shore… Sadness with that of the waves / Is laced’ does, indeed, convey an inference of sadness, but the concluding ‘is laced’ sounds a bit inappropriate. The Right’s conception and configuration, too, are extremely charming. ‘Beneath the pines I lay me down’ is, I think, a novel construction—although I do get the impression that that it sounds like something which has prior precedent. Still, saying ‘No drips / Have yet come to my soaking’ and then ‘The treetops showered, as / Beneath the pines’ means that the sound conveys the loneliness as it truly is. Thus, again, the Right wins.
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 38
Round Thirteen
Left
しぐれもるたびねのとこははなぞめのたもとぞさきにまづかへりける
| shigure moru tabine no toko wa hanazome no tamoto zo saki ni mazu kaerikeru | A shower drips upon me As I doze upon my journey-bed; Blossom-dyed, My sleeves, before me, Have first returned to what they were! |
Masahira
75
Right (Win)
はなれゆくみやこをおもふひとりねのなみだをさそふはつしぐれかな
| hanareyuku miyako o omou hitorine no namida o sasou hatsushigure kana | Distant has grown The capital, but it fills my thoughts, Sleeping solo, My tears invited by The first shower! |
Chikashige
76
The configuration of the Left’s poem appears charming, but it would have sounded more so had there been a reason why ‘my sleeves, before’ had returned to the capital on the journey. The diction and conception of the Right’s poem, beginning with ‘distant has grown’ and leading to ‘tears invited’, is extremely pleasant. It seems the Right wins.
Kinkai wakashū 204
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 01
Round One
Blossom and Grasses
Left (Tie)
色とこそ萩が花ずりおもひしか香さへ袂にうつりぬるかな
| iro to koso hagi ga hanazuri omoishika ka sae tamoto ni utsurinuru kana | With hues, indeed, Are the bush-clover blooms dyed Did I think, but Even the scent to my sleeves Has shifted! |
Lord Fujiwara no Shige’ie, Minister of Justice
1
Right
あきの野にいづれともなき花なれどまねく薄ぞ先めにはたつ
| aki no no ni izure to mo naki hana naredo maneku susuki zo saki me ni wa tatsu | In the autumn meadows All equally fine Are the flowers, yet It is the beckoning silver grass that First catches the eye! |
Former Minor Counsellor Fujiwara no Suketaka
2
On perusing the poems of Left and Right, it is not the case that neither has any elements lacking feeling. With that being said, the initial section of the Left’s poem and the final section of the right are not laudable, so after some little thought and being confused by the Left and the Right, reluctantly, I have decided to make this a tie.
