Tag Archives: age

San’i minamoto no hirotsune ason uta’awase 1

Pine seedlings on the Day of the Rat (子日小松)

Left

ねの日する松の葉ごとにかぞふれば猶ぞつきせぬきみが千とせは

ne no hi suru
matsu no ha goto ni
kazoureba
nao zo tsukisenu
kimi ga chitose wa
On this Day of the Rat
Every single pine needle
I count, but
Still the number would not exhaust
The millennia of my Lord…

A Court Lady
1

Right

はるかなる君がよはひにくらべむと子日の松をけふは引くかな

harukanaru
kimi ga yowai ni
kurabemu to
ne no hi no matsu o
kyō wa hiku kana
Distant is
My Lord’s age:
To what might it compare? Why
The Rat Day pines that
We pick today!

A Court Lady
2

Love V: 1

Left.
昔我振分髪を見てしより戀に亂て老いぞしにける

mukashi ware
furiwakegami o
miteshi yori
koi ni midarete
oi zo shinikeru
Long ago, I,
Your hair, bunched on either side,
Did glimpse, and ever since
In a confusion of love
Have I grown old.

Lord Suetsune.
841

Right (Win).
色に染む心は同じ昔にて人のつらきに老を知るかな

iro ni somuru
kokoro wa onaji
mukashi nite
hito no turaki ni
oi o shiru kana
Being charmed by beauty
My heart is just the same
As long ago, but
How cruel for me now,
Feeling my age…

Lord Takanobu.
842

The Right state: ‘Your hair, bunched on either side’ (furiwakegami) appears very abruptly. In addition, we wonder about the appropriateness of evoking youthful love. The Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults to indicate.

In judgement: the confusion evoked by ‘your hair, bunched on either side’ seems to have lasted rather too long. The Right’s poem sounds exactly as it should be. Thus, the Right should win.