足ひきのやまとびこゆる秋のかりいくへの霧をしのぎきぬらん
| ashihiki no yama tobikoyuru aki no kari ikue no kiri o shinogikinuran | Across the leg-wearying Mountains fly The autumn geese: How many misty layers Must they have broken through? |
Tag Archives: aki
Kinkai wakashū 221
Kinkai wakashū 213
Kinkai wakashū 202
Composed when I was in one of the aisles of the Shōchōjuin on the night of the 14th of the Seventh Month, and the moon was shining in.
ながめやる軒のしのぶの露の間にいたくなふけそ秋のよの月
| nagameyaru noki no shinobu no tsuyu no ma ni itaku na fuke so aki no yo no tsuki | Gazing out upon The ferns beneath the eaves, In the space between the dewdrops, Do not set so, O, moon, this autumn night! |
Kinkai wakashū 193
Kinkai wakashū 192
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 35
Round Eleven
Left (Win)
をしみかねあかぬ名残のくるしきに入るまではみじ秋のよの月
| oshimikane akanu nagori no kurushiki ni iru made wa miji aki no yo no tsuki | Unbearable regret, Unending is a memento Most painful— I would not watch until it sets: The moon this autumn night. |
Kenshō
69
Right
月影のかたぶくかたにさしいればやどのうちにも霜ぞ置きける
| tsukigage no katabuku kata ni sashi’ireba yado no uchi ni mo shimo zo okikeru | The moonlight as It descends Shines in, so Within my lodging Frost, indeed, has fallen. |
Lord Yorisuke
70
The Left, saying that the setting of the moon is a painful memento, and thus not watching it until the end seems excessively topsy-turvy. The Right, saying that the setting moon enters one’s lodging, is both pretentious and misses the point—surely it depends on the construction of the house! This shows know knowledge of how diction should be used, so the Left has to win.
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 33
Round Nine
Left
影きよく月をよこぎるうき雲は秋の名をさへけがしつるかな
| kage kiyoku tsuki yokogiru ukigumo wa aki no na sae kegashitsuru kana | The pure light of The moon crossing go The drifting clouds— The very name of autumn Have they besmirched! |
Arifusa
65
Right (Win)
照る月を浪のうへにてみる時ぞますみのかがみいる心ちする
| teru tsuki o nami no ue nite miru toki zo masumi no kagami iru kokochisuru | The shining moon Rests atop the waves, and When I gaze upon it, Within the clearest of mirrors Does it lie, I feel. |
Narinaka
66
What to make of the sound of the Left’s ‘besmirched the very name of autumn’? The Right does not seem to differ markedly from the conception of ‘Hundredfold Polished Mirror’[1] where it says that the moon ‘atop the waves’ is ‘all apiece with the autumn waters’ deeps’, does it. The Right should win.
[1] This is a reference to a poem by Bai Juyi, Bailianjing 百練鏡, contained in the Collected Works of Master Bai (Hakushi monjū 白氏文集), about a mirror which had been polished a hundred times. Kiyosuke quotes from the poem in his judgement, referring to the following passage: 江心波上舟中鋳 五月五日日午時 瓊粉金膏磨瑩已 化為一片秋潭水 jiangxinbo shang zhou zhong zhu / wu yue wu ri ri wushi / qiong fen jin gao mo ying yi / hua wei yipian qiu tan shui ‘In a boat atop the waves at the heart of the Yangtse / At noon on the 5th day of the Fifth Month / Polished with gemmed powdered seashells in golden oil / ‘Tis transformed and becomes all apiece with the autumn waters’ deeps.’
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 32
Round Eight
Left (Win)
月影をまつとをしむと秋の夜はふたたび山の端こそつらけれ
| tsukikage o matsu to oshimu to aki no yo wa futatabi yama no ha koso tsurakere | Moonlight A’waiting brings regret On autumn nights— Twice the mountains’ Edge do I hate so! |
Sadanaga
63
Right
吹きはらふ月のあたりの雲みれば春はいとひし風ぞうれしき
| fukiharau tsuki no atari no kumo mireba haru wa itoishi kaze zo ureshiki | Blown away From round the moon The clouds I see, so Hated in spring The wind fills me with joy! |
Koreyuki
64
The Right seems to be saying that clouds are blown away from round the moon, so it sounds as if the diction is reversed. Overall, it lacks soul. While the Left has an archaic conception, it should win.
Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 31
Round Seven
Left (Tie)
あまつほしありともみえぬ秋のよの月はすずしき光なりけり
| ama tsu hoshi ari tomo mienu aki no yo no tsuki wa suzushiki hikari narikeri | Stars in the heavens Appear there to be none on An autumn night when The moon a cool Light sheds. |
Kojijū
61
Right
さ夜ふくる空にきえゆく浮雲の名残もみえぬ秋のよの月
| sayo fukuru sora ni kieyuku ukigumo no nagori mo mienu aki no yo no tsuki | As brief night wears on Vanishing from the skies are The drifting clouds, Leaving no keepsake for The moon this autumn night. |
Moromitsu
62
The Left, in addition to suffering from the Tree-Bank fault,[1] compounds this by adding a further line so all the first three lines begin with the same sound. This has been noted as a fault in earlier poetry matches. The Right, too, mentions ‘night’ twice and this is a significant fault, but I am unable to grasp the sense of the Left’s poem, so it’s difficult to make a judgement between them.
[1] Ganjubyō 岸樹病 (‘Tree-Bank fault’): this was one of the four poetic faults identified in the poetic treatise Waka sakushiki 倭歌作式 (‘Code of Creation of Japanese Poetry’), attributed to Kisen 喜撰 (fl. 810-824), hence the treatise’s alternative title of Kisenshiki 喜撰式 (‘Kisen’s Selected Codes’). This attribution is widely believed to be spurious, however, and that the work was probably written in the mid-Heian period. Ganjubyō refers to beginning the first and second ‘lines’ of a waka with the same syllable, in this case ‘a’.