Tag Archives: wind

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 64

Round Fourteen

Left (Win)

みやゐしていくよへぬらむすみよしのまつふくかぜもかみさびにけり

miya’ishite
iku yo henuramu
sumiyoshi no
matsu fuku kaze mo
kamisabinikeri
Since He manifested here
How many ages might have passed?
At Sumiyoshi
The wind gusting through the pines, too,
Is touched with divinity…

Tsunemasa
127

Right

よのなかをいとふこころはさきだちていつまでとまるうきみなるらむ

yo no naka o
itou kokoro wa
sakidachite
itsu made tomaru
ukimi naruramu
This mundane world
My heart does despise and
Would depart, but
How long will I remain,
Suffering as I am?

Nakatsuna
128

Both Left and Right are expressions of grievance, but the Left is merely concerned with ‘Since He manifested here / How many ages might have passed?’, while the Right simply wonders ‘How long will I remain’ while despising the mundane world. I cannot really say that either is superior in the emotions they express, yet due to its reference to the deity, I should say that the Left wins.

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 47

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.

Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 39

Round Fourteen

Left

こころあれやかきなくらしそはつしぐれまださしはてずしばのかりいほ

kokoro are ya
kaki na kurashi so
hatsushigure
mada sashihatezu
shiba no kari’io
Have some sympathy,
And bring no darkness,
O, first shower!
For I have yet to finish putting up
My crude brushwood hut…

Lord Suetsune
77

Right (Win)

すみよしのまつがしたねのたびまくらしぐれもかぜにききまがへつつ

sumiyoshi no
matsu ga shita ne no
tabimakura
shigure mo kaze ni
kikimagaetsutsu
At Sumiyoshi
Beneath the pines, their roots are
My journey-pillow, as
The shower, too, with the gusting wind
I hear blending together.

Takanobu
78

The Left’s latter section, which states that the poet has ‘yet to finish putting up’ his hut, has a truly charming configuration as a poem on the conception of travel, but the phrase ‘have some sympathy’ does not appear to be a conception which has prior precedent. It could be a way of expressing the emotion through the shower. As for the Right, while I do question the sound of ‘journey-pillow’, it is the case that in Cathay-style poems this appears, but what are we do to about the fact that this is not ‘pillow on my journey’, I wonder? The sequencing of ‘the shower, too, with the wind’ is pleasant, isn’t it. Thus, I make the Right the winner.

Kinkai wakashū 323

The wind through the pines sounding like a shower

神無月木のはふりにし山里は時雨にまがふ松のかぜかな

kamidazuki
ko no ha furinishi
yamazato wa
shigure ni magau
matsu no kaze kana
In the Godless Month
When all the leaves from the trees have fallen,
In a mountain retreat
Blending with the showers is
The wind in the pines!