Left (Win)
住みなれし人はこずゑに絶えはてて琴の音にのみ通ふ松風
| suminareshi hito wa kozue ni taehatete koto no ne ni nomi kayou matsukaze |
Accustomed to his being here, Now, he comes not and from the treetops All that endures Are my zither’s strains, Blending with the pines. |
Lord Ari’ie
1103
Right
聞かじただつれなき人の琴の音にいとはず通ふ松の風をば
| kikaji tada tsurenaki hito no koto no ne ni itowazu kayou matsu no kaze o ba |
I will listen no more! To that cruel man’s Zither strains Heedlessly blending With the wind from off the pines… |
Nobusada
1104
The Right state: it sounds as if the man is enduring on the treetops. The Left state: ‘I will listen no more!’ (kikaji tada) is extremely coarse.
In judgement: while it may sound as if the man is enduring on the treetops in the Left’s poem, this is no more than a standard use of metaphorical expression, and the configuration of ‘accustomed to his being here, now, he comes not and from the treetops’ (suminareshi hito wa kozue ni) sounds fine, with the latter part of the poem also being elegant. The initial line of the Right’s poem has a conception of closing up the ears to block one’s auditory sense, which seems excessive. Clearly, the Left’s ‘my zither’s strains’ (koto no ne ni nomi) must win.
Left
相思ふ中には枝も交しけり君が梢はいやおちにして
| ai’omou naka ni wa eda mo kawashikeri kimi ga kozue wa iya’ochi ni shite |
Joined in love Branches meet and Twine together, they say, yet As the treetops, you fail to come Again, and yet again. |
Kenshō
1033
Right (Win)
人しれぬ心に君を楢柴のしばしもよそに思はずもがな
| hito shirenu kokoro ni kimi o narashiba no shibashi mo yoso ni omowasu mogana |
Unknown to all My heart to you Inclines among the oaks; For just a while, as a stranger I would you not think of me… |
Lord Takanobu
1034
The Gentlemen of the Right state: ‘again, and yet again’ (iya’ochi) does not sound pleasant. The Gentlemen of the Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults to mention.
In judgement: the Left’s poem, having the conception of intertwined branches is pleasant, but ‘treetops at my house’ (yado no kozue) would be normal, so I wonder about ‘as the treetops, you fail to come’ (kimi ga kozue)? In the Right’s poem, although ‘among the oaks; for just a while’ (narashiba no shibashi) is commonplace, it is still more elegant than ‘again and yet again’.
Composed when a man who had said she could definitely rely on him to come with the evening, said she would not see him until the 20th of the month.
契りおきし人も梢の木間よりたのめぬ月の影ぞもりくる
| tigiri okisi Fito mo kozuwe no ko no ma yori tanomenu tuki no kage zo morikuru |
He promised, but He does not come, and from the treetops Through the trees The fickle moon’s Light comes dripping. |
Horikawa, from the Regent’s Household
摂政家堀川
The poetry competition held at the residence of Yukihira, the Minister of Popular Affairs: Left and Right prepared tableau, among other things. The tableau were in the form of rustic dwellings. Poems were composed on these in relation to cuckoo calls.
Left (Tie) – on the form of a mountain dwelling
夏深き山里なれど時鳥声はしげくも聞えざりけり
| natu Fukaki yamazato naredo Fototogisu kowe Fa sigekumo kikoezarikeri |
Deep in summer Lies this mountain hut, yet The cuckoo Calls lush and thick, but I cannot hear them! |
1
Right – on the form of a country house
荒れにける宿の梢は高けれど山時鳥まれに鳴くかな
| arenikeru yado no kozue wa takakeredo yamahototogisu mare ni naku kana |
Gone to ruin is This house where treetops Are tall, yet The mountain cuckoo Calls there but rarely! |
2
The wind across the fields (野風)
Round One
Left
けさみればはぎをみなへしなびかしてやさしの野辺の風のけしきや
| kesa mireba hagi ominaeshi nabikashite yasashi no nobe no kaze no keshiki ya | This morn when I look out Are the bush clovers and maidenflowers Waving Gently in the fields A vision of wind? |
Lord Toshiyori
15
Right (Win)
高円の野路の篠原末騒ぎそそや秋風今日吹きぬなり
| takamado no noji no shinohara sue sawagi sosoya akikaze kyō fukinu nari | In Takamado, At Shinohara in Noji, Noisy in the treetops Rustles the autumn wind As it blows today. |
Lord Mototoshi
16
In the Left’s poem, from the phrase ‘bush clovers and maidenflowers’ (hagi ominaeshi) and to the following ‘gently in the fields’ (yashi no nobe) seem singularly unremarkable. In fact, the diction seems so out of place as to be comic. The Right’s poem has an elevated style and charming diction, so one would think it should win, should it not?
The Gentlemen of the Left: the Right’s poem does use the comically forceful diction ‘rustles’ (sosoya).
In judgement: the Left’s ‘waving’ (nabikashite) is an expression giving the poem an extremely idiosyncratic style. The initial section also appears to be lacking in force. As for the Right’s poem, ‘rustles’ (sosoya) is used by Sone no Yoshitada in his poem ‘rustling, the autumn wind has blown’ (sosoya akikaze fukinu nari),[1] so it is not as if there is not a prior example of usage. Thus, it seems to me that the Right’s poem is superior.
[1]The judge, Fujiwara no Mototoshi, is mistaken here, as the poem he is remembering is by Ōe no Yoshitoki 大江嘉言 and can be found in Shikashū (III: 108). Yoshitada is the author of SKS III: 110, however, so it seems he has simply made a mistaken identification of authorship over two poems which are more or less adjacent to each other in that anthology.