Round Nineteen
Left (Win)
くさまくらおなじたびねのそでにまたよはのしぐれもやどはかりけり
| kusamakura onaji tabine no sode ni mata yowa no shigure mo yado wa karikeri | Needing a grassy pillow When travelling just the same as I, dozing I find my sleeves drenched even more, For the midnight shower, too, Has found lodging. |
Kojijū
87
Right
いほりさすやまぢはすぎぬはつしぐれふるさとまでやめぐりゆくらむ
| iori sasu yamaji wa suginu hatsushigure furusato made ya meguriyukuramu | I put up my hut Upon the mountain path that you passed by, O, first shower! As far as my ancient home I wonder, will you make your way? |
Lord Sanemori
88
The poem of the Left, saying ‘When travelling just the same as I dozing, / I find my sleeves drenched even more’ and then following this with ‘For the midnight shower, too, / Has found lodging’, has an extremely charming conception and configuration. In addition to the poem of the Right also having a charming conception, it begins with ‘O, first shower!’ and then continues, ‘As far as my ancient home’, which is an effective use of diction. Nevertheless, the conception of the Left’s poem is even better and it wins.
Scarlet Leaves
Round One
Left (Win)
山姫やきてふる郷へ帰るらんにしきとみゆる衣手の杜
| yamahime ya kite furusato e kaeruran nishiki to miyuru koromode no mori | Does the mountain princess Wear it, when to her ancient home Returning? As brocade does seem The sacred grove at Koromode… |
Lord Shige’ie
73
Right
色色の木木のにしきを立田川ひとつはたにもおりながすかな
| iroiro no kigi no nishiki o tatsutagawa hitotsu hata ni mo orinagasu kana | Many hued is The trees brocade that The Tatsuta River’s Loom into one Does weave and float along! |
Shun’e
74
The Left’s ‘mountain princess’ is normally used, but where is the ‘ancient estate’? As for the Right, when the trees’ brocade is scattered, only then, indeed, can it be woven and made to flow along by a river. A long time ago there was a poem composed which, indeed, began, ‘The scarlet leaves in such confusion / Drift’ and then continued, ‘Were I to ford across, this brocade / Would be split in two, I’d say…’[1] Furthermore, what are we to make of ‘Tatsuta River’s / Loom into one’? There should be reference to a location which has some connection with looms, but to simply shoehorn in ‘Tatsuta River’s / Loom into one’ smacks of pleasing oneself. There is the earlier poem ‘Without a loom / Are brocade’,[2] too. The way in which this poem is constructed is charming, but these features are difficult to ignore, so thus the Left should win, I think.
[1] The poem is Kokinshū V: 283, with the headnote, ‘Topic unknown’. It is officially anonymous, but is accompanied by an endnote stating ‘It is said by some that this poem was composed by the Nara Emperor.’
[2] Topic unknown. から衣たつたの山のもみぢばははた物もなき錦なりけり karakoromo / Tatsuta no yama no / momijiba wa / hatamono mo naki / nishiki narikeri ‘A Cathay robe— / Tatsuta Mountain’s / Scarlet leaves, / Without a loom / Are brocade.’ Anonymous (GSS VII: 386)
Round Seven
Left (Win)
萩がはな分けゆく程は古郷へかへらぬ人もにしきをぞきる
| hagi ga hana wakeyuku hodo wa furusato e kaeranu hito mo nishiki o zo kiru | When through the bush-clover blooms He forges his way, To his ancient home Never to return—that man, too, Wears a fine brocade! |
Minamoto no Arifusa, Minor Captain in the Inner Palace Guards, Right Division
13
Right
声たてて鳴くむしよりも女郎花いはぬ色こそ身にはしみけれ
| koe tatete naku mushi yori mo ominaeshi iwanu iro koso mi ni wa shimikere | They lift their songs in Plaintive cries, but far more than the insects ‘Tis the maidenflower’s Wordless hue that truly Pierce my soul! |
Junior Assistant Minister of Central Affairs Sadanaga
14
The Left is well-composed, but what is the Right’s ‘wordless hue’? Are we supposed to imagine that the expression means ‘silent yellow’? This is difficult to grasp, isn’t it. Whatever way you look at it, the Left seems to win.
On flowering grasses before the moon, when he presented a Fifty Poem Sequence.
ふるさとのもとあらのこはぎさきしよりよなよな庭の月ぞうつろふ
| furusato no motoara no kohagi sakishi yori yonayona niwa no tsuki zo utsurou | At my ancient home Since the sparse bush clover Bloomed, Night after night upon the garden Shines the moon![i] |
The Regent and Palace Minister
[i] An allusive variation on KKS XIV: 694.
Left (Win)
きつつのみなくうぐひすのふるさとはちりにしむめのはなにざりける
| kitsutsu nomi naku uguisu no furusato wa chirinishi mume no hana ni zarikeru | Ever coming, simply To sing—the warbler’s Ancient home The scattered plum Blossoms is not. |
Mitsune
5[i]
Right
みちよへてなるてふももはことしよりはなさくはるにあひぞしにける
| michiyo hete naru chō momo wa kotoshi yori hana saku haru ni ai zo shinikeru | Three thousand generations enduring, They say, are the peaches: From this year Blossom blooming spring Have they encountered. |
Korenori
6[ii]
This poem says ‘generation’ when it should be composed about a year—it loses.
[i] This poem is included in Shinchokusenshū (I: 36), attributed to Sakanoue no Korenori, with the headnote, ‘From Former Emperor Uda’s Poetry Contest’.
[ii] A minor variant of this poem, which changes the first phrase to ‘For three thousand years’ (michi tose ni), is included in Shūishū (V: 288), attributed to Mitsune, with the headnote ‘From Former Emperor Uda’s Poetry Contest’.
