よそにのみ見てやはこひむ紅のすゑつむ花のいろにいでずは
| yoso ni nomi mite ya wa koFimu kurenawi no suetumuFana no iro ni idezu Fa | Simply from a distance Have I glimpsed you, and yearned, Though scarlet Safflower Hues I have not shown…[i] |
[i] See: Topic unknown. 人しれずおもへばくるし紅のすゑつむ花のいろにいでなむ hito shirezu / omoeba kurushi / kurenai no / suetsumuhana no . iro ni idenamu ‘Unknown to all / Are my feelings; what pain! / Scarlet / As the safflower / Would I show my love.’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XI: 496)
Round Two
Left
をちかたやくも井の山のほととぎすあまつよそにもなきわたるかな
| ochikata ya kumoi no yama no hototogisu ama tsu yoso ni mo nakiwataru kana | From the distant Mount within the clouds A cuckoo In yonder heavens Sings his song! |
Lord Saburō
17
Right
ほととぎすしのだのもりのしのびねをたづねざりせばいかできかまし
| hototogisu shinoda no mori no shinobine o tazunezariseba ikade kikamashi | A cuckoo In Shinoda’s sacred grove Lets out a hushed cry; Had I not come to visit here, How might I have heard it? |
Ushigimi
18
In regards the poem of the Left’s ‘from the distant’ and what follows, extremely recently and colloquially, at the Nakatomi purification ceremony it seems there was a composition, ‘in the distance, below the trees so lush’. This diction is contrary to the expected style of waka and something which occurs only extremely rarely. Truly, one does not compose using such diction in a poetry match. The poem of the Right has nothing of interest about it, yet it also lack faults to mention, so it wins.
This round, neither poem appears bad. The Left has a novel style, while the Right seems cliched, but its expression is smooth. I wonder if we could see these as a tie.
When Ki no Tomonori had not yet been bestowed with any official position, in connection with this when he was asked how old he was and replied that he was forty.
今までになどかは花のさかずしてよそとせあまり年ぎりはする
| ima made ni nado ka Fa Fana no sakazusite yoso tose amari tosigiri Fa suru | Up to this moment Why is it that blossoms Have yet to bloom? After as much as forty years Absent a year they are… |
The Posthumous Chancellor
