Tag Archives: tears

MYS V: 798

伊毛何美斯 阿布知乃波那波 知利奴倍斯 和何那久那美多 伊摩陁飛那久尓

いもがみし あふちのはなは ちりぬべし わがなくなみた いまだひなくに

imo ga misi
aputi no pana pa
tirinubesi
wa ga naku namida
imada pinaku ni
My darling’s eyes
Met chinaberry blooms,
All scattered now, though
The tears I weep
Have yet to dry…

Tabito

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.

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 35

Round Ten

Left (Tie)

くさまくらしぐれもそでをぬらしけりみやこをこふるなみだならねど

kusamakura
shigure mo sode o
nurashikeri
miyako o kouru
namida naranedo
On a pillow of grass
The showers, too, my sleeves
Have soaked;
Longing for the capital
These tears are not, yet…

Hiromori
69

Right

かりいほさすならのからはのむらしぐれあはれはまきのおとばかりかは

kari’io sasu
nara no karawa no
murashigure
aware wa maki no
oto bakari ka wa
Erecting a crude hut,
The withered leaves of oak are
Struck by cloudbursts;
Does sadness in the evergreens’
Sound solely lie?

Dharma Master Chikyō
70

Both Left and Right appear to have elegant configuration and diction, but the Left seems to presents the soaking of sleeves by showers as something novel, while the Right gives a feeling that it is only the sound of evergreens that makes one sad. Thus, these tie.

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 29

Round Four

Left (Tie)

たびねするあれたるやどのしぐれにはなみだもともにもるにぞありける

tabinesuru
aretaru yado no
shigure ni wa
namida mo tomo ni
moru ni zo arikeru
Sleeping on my travels
In a ruined hut,
The showers
And my tears, both,
Do leave me drenched!

Minamoto no Munenaga
(formerly Michikiyo)
57

Right

ちぎらねどさよのねざめにおとづれてしぐれぞたびのともとなりける

chigiranedo
sayo no nezame ni
otozurete
shigure zo tabi no
tomo to narikeru
It made no vow, yet
On awaking from a brief night’s sleep,
I am visited by the sound
Of showers—my journey’s
Companion, have they become.

Fujiwara no Noritsune
58

The Left conception and configuration appear pleasant, but after saying that one is ‘sleeping on my travels’ to then have ‘a ruined hut’—this does not really sound like somewhere a person would take lodging on their journey. As for the Right, it seems like the only reason the poet has begun with ‘it made no vow, yet’ is because he wished to use ‘companion’, but these pieces of diction are too far apart. Still, it does seem to have some conception, so I make these a tie.

Kinkai wakashū 222

Dew upon the plains.

久かたの空とぶかりのなみだかもおほあらきののささのうへのつゆ

hisakata no
ama tobu kari no
namida kamo
ōarakino no
sasa no ue no tsuyu
Eternal
Heaven-flying goose
Tears, perhaps?
Upon Ōaraki Plain,
Dew upon the dwarf-bamboo…[1]

[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. なきわたるかりの涙やおちつらむ物思ふやどの萩のうへのつゆ nakiwataru / kari no namida ya / ochitsuran / mono’omou yado no / hagi no ue no tsuyu ‘Calling across / Did the geese let tears / Fall? / My dwelling, lost in thought, / Has dew upon the bush clover.’ Anonymous (KKS IV:221); and: 如是為而也 尚哉将老 三雪零 大荒木野之 小竹尓不有九二 kakushite ya / nao ya oinuramu / miyuki furu / ōarakino no / shino ni aranaku ni  ‘Is this how it is to be? / Have I yet grown old / Though covered with fair snow / On Ōaraki Plain / An arrow-bamboo I am not…’ Anonymous (MYS VII: 1349).

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 19

Round Seven

Left (Tie)

草がくれ見えぬをしかも妻こふる声をばえこそ忍ばざりけれ

kusagakure
mienu oshika mo
tsuma kouru
koe oba e koso
shinobazarikere
Hidden by the grasses,
Unseen, the stag, too
Longing for his mate,
His bell, indeed, is unable
To conceal!

Lord Yorimasa
37

Right

秋の野の花のたもとに置く露や妻よぶしかの涙なるらむ

aki no no no
hana no tamoto ni
oku tsuyu ya
tsuma yobu shika no
namida naruramu
In the autumn meadows,
Upon the blossoms’ sleeves
Are the fallen dewdrops
The stag—calling for his mate—
Letting tears fall?

Narinaka
38

The Left is novel, and the Right charming, respectively. The Right’s poem does have a large number of identical syllables—while this is criticized in the Code of the Creation of Poetry as a ‘whole body fault’, it is not the case that poems containing this defect have not appeared in poetry matches from time to time, and I don’t feel it’s necessary to examine whether there are a large number of similar cases here: such things are simply a style of poetry.

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 16

Round Four

Left

さをしかのなくねはよそにききつれど涙は袖の物にぞ有りける

saoshika no
naku ne wa yoso ni
kikitsuredo
namida wa sode no
mono ni zo arikeru
The stag’s
Sad bell in the distance
Did I hear, yet still
My tears my sleeves
Have covered.

Sadanaga
31

Right (Win)

山たかみおろすあらしやよわるらんかすかに成りぬさをしかの声

yama takami
orosu arashi ya
yowaruran
kasuka ni narinu
saoshika no koe
From the mountain’s heights
Descending, has the storm wind
Weakened?
Faintly comes
The stag’s bell.

Lord Suetsune
32

I do wonder about the Left, given that there appears to be a poem by the late Lord Toshiyori:

さをしかのなくねは野べにきこゆれどなみだは床の物にぞ有りける

saoshika no
naku ne wa nobe ni
kikoyuredo
namida wa toko no
mono ni zo arikeru[1]
The stag’s
Sad bell upon the plain
I heard, yet
My tears my bed
Have covered.

I am a little leery of the Right’s central line, but overall it is not the case that this poem lacks conception, so it should win.


[1] KYS (3) III: 225 Composed on ‘listening to stags in a hut in the fields’. Also SZS V: 310 ‘Composed when he heard a stag belling while at a mountain retreat in Tanakami’. Also Sanboku kikashū 451 ‘Listening to stags in a hut in the fields’.