黄葉乃 過麻久惜美 思共 遊今夜者 不開毛有奴香
もみちばの すぎまくをしみ おもふどち あそぶこよひは あけずもあらぬか
| momidiba no sugimaku wosimi omopudoti asobu koyopi pa akezu mo aranu ka | The autumn leaves’ Scattered passing, regretting With fine company Enjoying tonight— O, won’t dawn break not? |
The above is a poem by Ōtomo sukune Yakamochi of the Palace Guards.
A shower at a journey’s lodging
たびの空なれぬはにふのよるのとこ侘しきまでにもる時雨かな
| tabi no sora narenu hanyū no yoru no toko wabishiki made ni moru shigure kana | Beneath a journey’s skies With unfamiliar mud walls Around my bed tonight, Sad and lonely have I become With the shower dripping through![i] |
581
[i] See: On disembarking. 旅のそらはにふのこやのいぶせさにふるさといかにこひしかるらん tabi no sora / hanyū no koya no / ibusesa ni / furusato ika ni / koishikaruran ‘Beneath a journey’s skies / Within a mud hut and / Filled with gloom / For my ancient home how much / I do seem to long…’ Captain of the Third Rank Shigehira (Heike monogatari 85)
Cogon grass and the Same
Round Fifteen
Left
うき人を驚かすべき方ぞなきうらやましきは荻の上風
| ukibito o odorokasubeki kata zo naki urayamashiki wa ogi no uwakaze | That cruel girl: To make her notice me I have no way at all! How I envy The wind blowing o’er the cogon grass! |
Lecturer Kakuga
29
Right
荻原やよかぜぞつらき音せずはねてこそ人を夢にみましか
| ogiwara ya yokaze zo tsuraki oto sezu wa nete koso hito o yume ni mimashika | O, plain of cogon grass, How unkind is the wind tonight! For without your sound, then Indeed, I would sleep that she I would glimpse within my dreams… |
The Head
30
The conception of love sounds superior at present in envying the ‘wind blowing o’er the cogon grass’ than it does in the ‘unkind is the wind tonight’.
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.
□□さとにをしみぞとむるきくのはな霜にうつろふいろをみむとか
| …sato ni oshimi zo tomuru kiku no hana shimo ni utsurou iro o mimu to ka | Around my … estate Regrets linger for The chrysanthemum blooms, Fading beneath the frost Would I see their hues, I wonder? |
Masau[1]
19
ももしきにうつろふいろははつしものおきてかひあるこよひなりけり
| momoshiki ni utsurou iro wa hatsushimo no okite kai aru koyoi narikeri | Within the hundred-fold palace Fading hues with First frost’s Fall have some significance Tonight. |
Nakatsura[2]
20
[1] Possibly Taira no Masau 平將文
[2] Possibly Minamoto no Nakatsura 源仲連
Round Twenty-Two
Left
いなむしろしきつのうらのまつかぜはもりくるをりぞしぐれともしる
| inamushiro shikitsu no ura no matsukaze wa morikuru ori zo shigure to mo shiru | A straw mat spread At Shikitsu Bay, where when On the wind through the pines Come dripping droplets I know a shower is falling! |
Lord Kiyosuke
93
Right (Win)
おほぞらもみやこのかたをしのぶらしこよひはことにうちしぐれつつ
| ōzora mo miyako no kata o shinoburashi koyoi wa koto ni uchishiguretsutsu | The heavens, too, Of the capital Think fondly, it seems, For tonight is especially Filled with constant showers… |
Lord Sanetsuna
94
The poem of the Left appears to have a pleasant conception, blending showers with the wind through the pines and saying, ‘Come dripping droplets / I know a shower is falling!’, but it appears that the straw mat has only been spread because of the reference to Shikitsu [spreading] Bay. Considering the actual nature of a straw mat, however, I do not feel that the sense links with Shikitsu Bay, although it would be charming if sleeping on a journey in the shade of the willows beside a river, or even in a hut among the rice-fields. I do not feel it is appropriate to spread a straw mat beneath the pines at Sumiyoshi. In addition, it is only the straw mat here which has the conception of a journey—how should one feel about that? The configuration of the Right’s poem, beginning with ‘The heavens, too’ and following with ‘Of the capital / Think fondly, it seems’, I would say is a poem for a poetry match. While a counter-argument has been made about the Left’s poem, it’s really asking for the impossible, isn’t it. So, I impose victory for the Right.
Left
あまくだるかみもひさしくみやゐして月ものどかにすみよしのうら
| amakudaru kami mo hisashiku miya’ishite tsuki mo nodoka ni sumiyoshi no ura | Descending from Heaven, The Deity, too, eternally Manifests here, where The moon, too, is calm Above the bay of Sumiyoshi. |
Venerable Dharma Eye Shōken[1]
47
Right (Win)
かみよよりたぐひなしともすみよしのまつやこよひの月をみるらむ
| kamiyo yori taguinashi tomo sumiyoshi no matsu ya koyoi no tsuki o miruramu | Since the Age of Gods Is there nothing to compare with, At Sumiyoshi, The pines tonight with The moon filling my gaze? |
Novice Jakuchō[2]
48
The Left appears to have a truly charming conception and configuration, but beginning with ‘The Deity, too, eternally’ and then saying ‘The moon, too, is calm’ and repeating the same word is discordant. The Right, in addition to having no particular faults to mention, has an extremely pleasant-sounding configuration with ‘The pines tonight’. Thus, I make this a win for the Right.
[1] Hōgen kashōi Shōkaku 法眼和尚位静賢
[2] Shami Jakuchō沙弥寂超
