Love
Left
恋といへばまづいでたちて春も皆ゆくらむ方も知らずもあるかな
| koi to ieba mazu idetachite haru mo mina yukuramu kata mo shirazu mo aru kana | This thing called love Has gone before, and The spring, too, no one It’s destination Knows at all! |
11
Right
年毎に花におくるるみにしあれば恋ひせぬ春のなきぞわびしき
| toshi goto ni hana ni okururu mi ni shi areba koisenu haru no naki zo wabishiki | Every single year Missing the blossom Is my sorry self, A springtime with no one to love Is there not, but still sad and lonely am I! |
12
The end of spring
Left
あだなりと世にいふ花は散らずしてすぎゆく春ぞかひなかりける
| adanari to yo ni iu hana wa chirazushite sugiyuku haru zo kainakarikeru | Faithless, does The world call blossom, Not scattering with The passage of spring, so What’s the point to it! |
9
Right
花もみなおのが散り散りはかなきを春を見すててゆくぞかなしき
| hana mo mina ono ga chirijiri hakanaki o haru o misutete yuku zo kanashiki | The blossoms, every one, Scatter themselves So fleetingly, and Heedlessly abandon spring, so Sad its departure is. |
10
Love
Left
わが恋は春のなかばになりにけり花のにほひに影やみゆると
| wa ga koi wa haru no nakaba ni narinikeri hana no nioi ni kage ya miyuru to | My love In the heart of spring Has come about: In the glow of blossom Can I see her face… |
7
Right
春はなほくるしかりけりさくら花いろのつきつつ恋のまされば
| haru wa nao kurushikarikeri sakurabana iro no tsukitsutsu koi no masareba | Spring is ever Full of pain: The cherry blossoms’ Hues exhausted, as My love is at its strongest… |
8
The middle of spring.[i]
Left
まづ立ちて過ぎにし春はかひもなしとまるは花ものどけからなむ
| mazu tachite suginishi haru wa kai mo nashi tomaru wa hana mo nodokekaranamu | For it first to have arisen and Then departed—to such a spring There is no point; If it stayed then the blossom, too, Might linger on. |
5
Right
さくら花にほふさかりをみるときは心も春のなかにこそいれ
| sakurabana niou sakari o miru toki wa kokoro mo haru no naka ni koso ire | Cherry blossom: When in glowing profusion I see, then My soul, too, spring’s Heart does enter! |
6
[i] Naka no haru 仲の春
Love.
Left
人知れぬ恋の涙はうぐひすの初声にこそながれいでぬれ
| hito shirenu koi no namida wa uguisu no hatsukoe ni koso nagare’idenure | Unknown to all My tears of love With the warbler’s First cry have Burst into flow! |
3
Right
いかならむときか忘れむ春霞たちゐる空も君ぞこひしき
| ika naramu toki ka wasuremu harugasumi tachi’iru sora mo kimi zo koishiki | What is to become of me? Can I forget the time, when The spring haze Rising into the skies, too, Was dear to me as you? |
4
Tsurayuki’s Poetry Match,[i] 28th day of the Second Month, Tengyō 2[ii]
The beginning of spring.
Left
白雪のみにふりながら梅の花をりつるほどに春は来にけり
| shirayuki no mi ni furinagara mume no hana oritsuru hodo ni haru wa kinikeri | Snow, so white, Falling upon my flesh, While the plum blossom, Branches are breaking Spring has come! |
1
Right
鶯の巣立ちし日よりはるばるとおもひは音にぞまづなかれける
| uguisu no sudachishi hi yori harubaru to omoi wa ne ni zo mazu nakareru | Since the day the bush warbler Departed his nest, Endlessly Have I thought his song For the present has not been here. |
2
[i] Tsurayuki uta’awase 貫之歌合
[ii] 21 March 939
| Shinpen kokka taikan no. | |
| Heian-chō uta’awase taisei no. | 39 |
| Title | 貫之歌合 |
| Romanised Title | Tsurayuki uta’awase |
| Translated Title | Tsurayuki’s Poetry Contest |
| Alternative Title(s) | |
| Date | 28/2 Tengyō 天慶 2 [21.3.939] |
| Extant Poems | 26 |
| Sponsor | Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之 |
| Identifiable Participants | N |
| Judgements | N |
| Topics | The beginning of spring (hajime no haru 初の春); middle of spring (naka no haru 仲の春); end of spring (haru no hate 春の終); middle of autumn (naka no aki 仲の秋); end of autumn (hate no aki 終の秋); beginning of winter (hajime no fuyu 初の冬); love (koi 恋) |
There are few definite details available about this event—and what can be gleaned about it from other texts and the headnotes to poems linked with it in other sources is sometimes contradictory. Hagitani (1957, 266–267) discusses these issues in detail, but briefly the event is said to have taken place at Tsurayuki’s residence, or when he was in Suō province, early in 939. Tsurayuki was between official positions at this time, so if he did make this journey, it will have been in a private capacity, possibly to visit relatives, or because he had property there. It is possible that he held this event either to mark his departure from the capital, or his return, or that he did, indeed, hold it in the provinces, but as the names of the poets taking part were not recorded, it is impossible to be sure.
The match has a somewhat interesting structure, broadly following the seasons with poems on the beginning, middle and end of each, but these are interspersed with seasonally-linked love poems. Rather than following the conventional pattern of having the seasons preceding love, therefore, it blends both topics together, while still maintaining these as the dominant compositional themes. Given Tsurayuki’s eminence and reputation as a poet, Hagitani (1957, 268) suggests that it would have been ‘natural’ for him to have provided judgements on the poems’ quality at the time, but that it was not unusual for these not to have been recorded due to the event’s informal and private nature.