Topic unknown.
かきくらし雪はふりつつしかすがにわが家のそのに鶯ぞなく
| kakurasi yuki Fa Furitutu sikasuga ni wa ga ya no sono ni uguFisu zo naku | Raking in the darkness, The snow is ever falling, But even so In the grounds around my home Indeed, the warbler sings! |
Monthly Archives: May 2026
MYS X: 1830
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase 05
Original
さほやまのははそのもみぢちりぬべみよるさへみよとてらすつきかげ
| saoyama no hahaso no momiji chirinubemi yoru sae miyo to terasu tsukikage | Upon Sao Mountain The oaks’ autumn leaves Must have scattered, for Even at night behold! The shining moonlight… |
12
Left (Win)
ひさかたのつきなかりせばさほやまのもみぢはよるのにしきならまし
| hisakata no tsuki nakariseba saoyama no momiji wa yoru no nishiki naramashi | Were the eternal Moon to cease to be, then Sao Mountain’s Autumn leaves for night’s Brocade would I wish! |
13
Right
つきかげのさやけくみゆるさほやまのもみぢをかぜにまかせずもがな
| tsukikage no sayakeku miyuru saoyama no momiji o kaze ni makasezu mogana | In the moonlight, So clear, I see Sao Mountain’s Autumn leaves—to the wind I would entrust them not! |
14
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase 04
Original
あきやまはからくれなゐになりにけりいくしほしぐれふりてそめけむ
| akiyama wa karakurenai ni narinikeri iku shio shigure furite somekemu | The autumn mountains To Cathay scarlet Have turned; How many dippings with drizzle Have fallen to dye them so? |
9
Left
しぐれつつくれなゐふかくやまのはもあきはてゆけばかひなかりけり
| shiguretsutsu kurenai fukaku yama no ha mo aki hateyukeba kainakarikeri | With every shower The scarlet deepens Of the leaves upon the mountain— With autumn reaching its ending How pointless that is… |
10
Right
いくしほもしぐれはふらじさほひめのふかくそめたるいろとこそみれ
| iku shio mo shigure wa furaji saohime no fukaku sometaru iro to koso mire | No matter how many dippings With drizzle fall, Princess Sao’s Deeply dyed Hues we see! |
11
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase 03
Original
やまざとはふゆぞさびしさまさりけるひとめもくさもかれぬとおもへば
| yamazato wa fuyu zo sabishisa masarikeru hitome mo kusa mo karenu to omoeba | In a mountain retreat Winter’s loneliness Overwhelms As both folks’ gaze and the grasses, too Have withered away, I feel… |
Minamoto no Toshiyuki
6
Left (Tie)
おほかたのあきはあはれのふかければやまざとならでなほぞかなしき
| ōkata no aki wa aware no fukakereba yamazato narade nao zo kanashiki | In general, when Autumn’s sorrow Is at its deepest ‘Tis not only a mountain retreat That is still sunk in sadness! |
7
Right
やまざとはいつともわかじいとどしくあきはしかこそかなしかるらめ
| yamazato wa itsu to mo wakaji itodoshiku aki wa shika koso kanashikarurame | A mountain retreat Fails to stand out— Most of all In autumn does the stag Seem so sad! |
8
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase 02
Original
さよふかくこひするしかのこゑきけばわれさへあやなそでのひづかな
| sayo fukaku koisuru shika no koe kikeba ware sae ayana sode no hizu kana | Deep within a night so brief, A’loving, the stag’s Cry I hear Even my sleeves, strangely, Never dry at all! |
4
きくひとのそでさへひづるしかのねにあきのしぐれのふりでてぞなく
| kiku hito no sode sae hizuru shika no ne ni aki no shigure no furidete zo naku | Folk hearing, With even their sleeves never drying, At a stag’s bell— An autumn shower Falling with a cry! |
5
Only one poem was requested in response this round.
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase 01
Former Emperor Yōzei, on the 15th day of the Ninth Month, when it fell upon the day of Elder Brother-Metal Monkey, held a poetry match of the Left and Right with his eldest son’s daughters, the First Princess and the Second Princess, as the leaders of the two teams, composing poems in response to prior poems on the conception of the end of autumn.
Original
つきかげのやましたまでにさやけきはよるももみぢのいろをみよとや
| tsukikage no yamashita made ni sayakeki wa yoru mo momiji no iro o miyo to ya | The moonlight To the mountains’ foot Is clear, so At night, too, the scarlet leaves’ Hues behold—I wonder if they say! |
1
Left
もみぢせぬあきのやまべのあらばこそつきのひかりをたづねてもみめ
| momiji senu aki no yamabe no araba koso tsuki no hikari o tazunete mo miyu | Should scarlet leaves be not Upon the autumn mountainside Then, surely, still The moon’s light Would I visit to see. |
2
Right
つきかげにちりぬべければ〔 〕
| tsukikage ni chirinubekereba | When within the moonlight Can have scattered |
3
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase
This is rather lengthily titled petry match, Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase, which translates as the ‘Poetry Match held by Former Emperor Yōzei between the Daughters of the First Prince’. The prince in question was Prince Motoyoshi (890-943) who was one of the organisers of the love poetry match we have just completed. The match was held on the 15th day of the Ninth Month, Tenryaku 2 [19 October 948] five years after Motoyoshi’s death when Yōzei was 82. This is the last poetry match we have a record of Yōzei’s involvement in, as he was to die the following year. Sadly, the names of Motoyoshi’s daughters have not been recorded, so we know them only as ‘Oldest Daughter’ (Ōigimi)[i] and ‘Second Daughter’ (Nakagimi), nor do we know anything else about them as individuals.
Like most of Yōzei’s poetic events, this seems to have been a small-scale private affair with its focus on poetry as the entertainment more than anything else which, perhaps, accounts for the informal tone of some of the works presented. It seems probable that the event was conceived as following the model of the earlier ‘Poetry Match held by the Kyōgoku Lady of the Bedchamber’ (Kyōgoku no miyasudokoro uta’awase) in 921, as it follows that match’s pattern of having poems composed as responses to earlier works.
[i] There is a possibility that the older daughter was named Princess Akiko (Akiko-joō 明子女王), but that has not been definitely confirmed.
