kusamakura tabi ni shi areba karikomo no omoimidarete i koso nerarene
A pillow of grass I have on my travels, and Reaped wild rice My thoughts are scattered, Unable ever to sleep![i]
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[i] See: Topic unknown. かりこもの思ひみだれて我こふといもしるらめや人しつげずは karikomo no/ omoimidarete / ware kou to / imo shirurame ya / hito shi tsugezu wa ‘As cut wild-rice / Are my scattered thoughts: / That I do love her, / I wonder, can she know, / With no one to tell her?’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XI: 485)
[1] The Thirty Day Sutra Recitation (Sanjikkō 三十講)was an event where the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings (Ananta Nirdeśa Sūtra; Jp. Muryōgi-kyō 無量義経), the twenty-eight fascicles of the Lotus Sutra (Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram; Jp. Hokke-kyō 法華経) and the Samantabhadra Meditation Sūtra (Jp. Kanfugen-kyō 観普賢経) were read aloud over thirty consecutive days, or occasionally over fifteen consecutive days with readings each morning and evening.
Both Left and Right state: there is no separation between man and woman.
In judgement: ‘Young shoot of wild rice at Yodo’ (yodo no wakagomo) and ‘Ide’s jewelled waters’ (ide no tamamizu) are both elegant in style, but the Left has pledged a more profound bond. The Right has ‘the slight reflection left’ (mada kage asaki) and the Left is a poem about a vow which has been made. The Right is just referring to events of the past. Thus, ‘depth’ should win.
