Composed on the conception of waiting for love.
| samushiro ni hitori munashiku toshi mo henu yoru no koromo no suso awazushite | With a scanty coverlet Unwillingly alone Through the passing years With night-robes’ Hems never meeting… |
514
Tag Archives: toshi
Tsurayuki uta’awase 07
Left
織女の年に一たび逢ふものをなどわが恋のはるけかるらむ
| tanabata no toshi ni hito tabi au mono o nado wa ga koi no harukekaruramu | The Weaver Maid But once a year A meeting may have, but Why is it my love Does seem to grow ever distant? |
13
Right
つゆに露われもろともにおきゐつつ恋する身さへ消えぬべきかな
| tsuyu ni tsuyu ware morotomo ni oki’itsutsu koisuru mi sae kienubeki kana | Dewfall upon dewdrops, Both do I Let ever fall— Love fills my flesh so It could fade away! |
14
Eien narabō uta’awase 07
Round Seven
Left
しらなみのたつたのかはにしきるかな山のさくらはちりにけらしも
| shiranami no tatsuta no kawa ni shikiru kana yama no sakura wa chirinikerashi mo | Whitecaps On Tatsuta River Constant are! Upon it the mountain cherries Have scattered it seems… |
Lady Kazusa
13
Right
花ざかりゆきとぞ見ゆるとしをへてよしのの山はふゆはふたたび
| hanazakari yuki to zo miyuru toshi o hete yoshino no yama wa fuyu wa futatabi | The profusion of blossom Seems like snow, so Passing through the year To Mount Yoshino Winter comes twice! |
Lady Shikibu
14
The poem of the Left’s ‘Whitecaps / On Tatsuta River / Constant are!’ is an expression I have not heard before. I have reviewed a large number of collections, and it has not been previously used. The Right’s poem is one from the Poetry Match held by the Sage of Ungo Temple.[i] Thus, it is difficult to determine a winner or loser.
The Left poem’s central line ‘constant are!’ sounds a bit distant. In addition, looking at the flowing of water is not part of the essential meaning of the topic. If one views the treetops, then one should say something like ‘Hidden in the mountains’ depths / These blossoms – would any wish to see them?’[1] –that’s an appropriate expression to be directed toward such blossoms. This poem is lacking in the sentiments required for a poetry match. The poem of the Right, stating that blossoms resemble snow, is something that has been used frequently and so sounds very well-worn, indeed. The final ‘Winter comes twice!’ also lacks elegance and, in addition, seems insufficient. I would think these should tie?
[1] A poem from a poetry competition held by Her Majesty, the Empress, during the Kanpyō period. 吹風と谷の水としなかりせば深山がくれの花を見ましや fuku kaze to / tani no mizu to shi / nakariseba / miyama gakure no / hana o mimashi ya ‘The gusting wind and / The valley’s waters / Were there none, then / Hidden in the mountains’ depths / These blossoms – would there be any chance to see them?’ Tsurayuki (KKS II: 118)
[i] It is unclear which poetry match Mototoshi is referring to here. The Sage of Ungo Temple (Ungoji no hijiri 雲居寺聖) was a sobriquet given to Senzai瞻西 (?-1127), after he reconstructed the temple in Higashiyama to the east of the capital after a long period of abeyance. There are surviving records of three poetry matches held at the temple in which Senzai took part: the ‘Poetry Match at the Ungo Temple’ (Ungoji uta’awase 雲居寺歌合); the ‘Poetry Match held at the Celebration after Sutra-copying at the Ungo Temple’ (Ungoji kechiengyō goen uta’awase 雲居寺結縁経後宴歌合); and the ‘Later Match Contest held at the Ungo Temple’ (Ungoji goban uta’awase 雲居寺後番歌合). All of these took place in Eikyū 4 (1116), but the first and last are fragmentary and only identifiable from the headnote to poems included in other collections. Ungoji kechiengyō goen uta’awase, however, is extant and was judged by Mototoshi, so we can definitively say that he was present. This match, though, took place in the Eighth Month, and so was devoted to autumn topics; Shikibu is also not listed among the participants, although a number of other court ladies well-known as poets do take part. The other two matches took place in the summer, or later in the autumn, and so it seems unlikely that a spring topic, such as cherry blossom, would have been assigned. The likelihood, therefore, is that either Mototoshi is referring to another match held at the temple in the spring, no record of which has survived, or that he has misremember the occasion on which he encountered Shikibu’s poem. A slight variant of this poem does occur in the anthology Konsen wakashū 今撰和歌集 (‘Anthology of Current Poetry’) (27), a private collection believed to have been put together by Kenshō in 1165-66, but the headnote there references this match, and there appear to be no records of this poem elsewhere in the canon.
Tsurayuki uta’awase 06
Love
Left
恋といへばまづいでたちて春も皆ゆくらむ方も知らずもあるかな
| koi to ieba mazu idetachite haru mo mina yukuramu kata mo shirazu mo aru kana | This thing called love Has gone before, and The spring, too, no one It’s destination Knows at all! |
11
Right
年毎に花におくるるみにしあれば恋ひせぬ春のなきぞわびしき
| toshi goto ni hana ni okururu mi ni shi areba koisenu haru no naki zo wabishiki | Every single year Missing the blossom Is my sorry self, A springtime with no one to love Is there not, but still sad and lonely am I! |
12
Entō ōn’uta’awase 19
Round Nineteen
Left (Tie)
なれをしぞあはれとはおもふ時鳥あかず過ぎても歳のへぬれば
| nare o shizo aware to wa omou hototogisu akazu sugite mo toshi no henureba | You, indeed, do Deeply move me O, cuckoo! Never sated am I Through all the passing years… |
The Supernumerary Major Counsellor
37
Right
われならで何をうしとか時鳥ことしも雲のよそに鳴くらん
| ware narade nani o ushi to ka hototogisu kotoshi mo kumo no yoso ni nakuran | Not I, but What is it distresses you so, O, cuckoo? That this year, too, from the clouds Yonder side you seem to sing… |
Lord Nobunari
38
Both Left and Right don’t sound bad, so again this is a tie.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 29
Round Five
Left (T – Tie)
つれなさのためしは誰ぞたれにても人なげかせてはてはよしやは
| tsurenasa no tameshi wa ta zo tare nite mo hito nagekasete hate wa yoshi ya wa | For cold cruelty Who is your exemplar? Whoever it might be, Is causing one such grief A good thing, in the end? |
Lord Morotoshi
57
Right (M – Win)
逢ふ事をまつの汀に年ふればしづえに波のかけぬ日ぞなき
| au koto o matsu no migiwa ni toshi fureba shizue ni nami no kakenu hi zo naki | For a meeting Pining by the waters’ edge As the years go by— Lower boughs by waves Washed not on any day, at all… |
Lord Sadanobu
58
Toshiyori states: it is impossible to say that that the configuration and diction of the first poem is anything special. In the second poem, ‘For a meeting / Pining by the waters’ edge’ has poetic qualities, but continuing with ‘Lower boughs by waves / Washed not on any day, at all’ does not seem like a love poem, and if the poet had wanted to allude to tears here, well, it just doesn’t sound like it, does it. The Left has the conception of a Love poem, but it language lacks elegance; the Right is smooth, but has only a faint conception of love, and thus these tie.
Mototoshi states: this poem’s diction is particularly bizarre. What an objectionably unpleasant feeling of love! One does see this in the passage giving the reply by Nakatomi no Tokuin, and then there seems to have been the poem ‘go on then, you creeper’, but that one continues extremely charmingly, while this sounds ghastly. Then ‘For a meeting / Pining by the waters’ edge’, truly is a charming composition, and the subsequent ‘Lower boughs by waves / Washed not on any day, at all’ seems entirely clear. It seems to approach the quality of Komachi’s poem, to me! This is a win for the Right, I have to say.
