Round Nine
Left
さほ姫の霞の衣おりてけりあそぶいとゆふたてぬきにして
| saohime no kasumi no koromo oritekeri asobu itoyū tatenuki ni shite | Princess Sao Of mist a gown Has woven; The threads of haze Make the warp and weft… |
Naganori
17
Right
難波がたかすみたな引く春の夜は澳こぐ舟のみえみみえずみ
| naniwagata kasumi tanabiku haru no yo wa oki kogu fune no mie mizu mi | At Naniwa Inlet The haze lies o’er all On a night in springtime Boats rowing into the offing Appear and disappear… |
Narinaka
18
The Left’s haze, the conception of ‘threads of haze make the warp and weft’, puts me in mind of the line ‘touching the sky, they weave and set adrift their emerald netting of silk’, [1]and mentioning Princess Sao seems skillful; the poem is entrancing and charming. As for the Right, the configuration of saying ‘a boat rowing out into the haze of Naniwa Bay’, too, this entrances me so much that it’s something I would wish to show to folk with some sensitivity. I don’t feel there’s much between these, so, once more the round ties.
[1] The translation here comes from Rimer and Chaves (1997, 33) translation of a Sinitic poem in Wakan rōeishū (I: 22).