Round Thirteen
Left (Tie)
われもいかでよにながらへてすみよしのまつのちとせのゆくすゑもみむ
| ware mo ikade yo ni nagaraete sumiyoshi no matsu no chitose no yukusue mo mimu | Somehow, I, too, Would endure in this world, that Sumiyoshi’s Pine’s thousand years End I would see! |
Masahira
125
Right
たとへけむなみはわがみにあらはれぬこぎゆくふねのあとはほかかは
| tatoekemu nami wa wagami ni arawarenu kogiyuku fune no ato wa hoka ka wa | Might I compare The waves, which on my sorry self Have made their mark, with A boat rowing out, leaving A wake, or if not that then what? [1] |
Chikashige
126
The Left seems to be imagining something very unrealistic. The Right has the poem ‘To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking’ in mind, and appears to have the charming conception of sorrowing over the face of Grand Duke Jiang appearing in the waves on the Wei River, but ‘if not that then what?’ sounds a bit overblown. With that being said, the Left feels like a plea for good fortune, and the Right evokes impermanence. The matters are only distantly connected, and thus in terms of faults and merits they are equal.
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. 世の中をなににたとへむあさぼらけこぎゆく舟のあとのしら浪 yo no naka o / nani ni tatoemu / asaborake / kogiyuku fune no / ato no shiranami ‘This mundane world: / To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking, / A boat rows out / Whitecaps in its wake.’ Novice Mansei (SIS XX: 1327)
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.
