Composed on the topic of lingering snow for a poetry match held by Her Majesty, the Empress during the reign of the Goreizei emperor:
はなならでをらまほしきはなにはえのあしのわかばにふれるしらゆき
| Fana narade woramahosiki Fa naniFae no asi no wakaba ni Fureru shirayuki | Though they are not blossoms How I long to pick At Naniwa Inlet From the new-grown reed tips Fallen snowflakes. |
Lord Fujiwara no Norinaga
なにはがたみぎはのあしのいつまでかほにいでずしも秋を忍ばん
| naniwagata migiwa no ashi no itsu made ka ho ni idezu shimo aki o shinoban | In Naniwa’s tidelands, By the waterside reeds How long must I Refrain from bursting out, and Repress the surfeit of it?[i] |
563
[i] See: When the heart of a woman whom he had been visiting frequently showed no sign of melting, he sent this to her to say that months and years had passed and they were still in such a state. なにはがたみぎはのあしのおいがよに怨みてぞふる人の心を naniwagata/ migiwa no ashi no / oi ga yo ni / uramite zo furu / hito no kokoro o ‘In Naniwa’s tidelands / By the waterside the reeds / Growing old within this world / How I despise the passing time– / And your hard heart…’ Anonymous (Gosenshū XVI: 1170)
Round Six
Left
ふるゆきに山のほそみちうづもれてまれにとひこし人もかよはず
| furu yuki ni yama no hosomichi uzumorete mare ni toikoshi hito mo kayowazu | With the falling snow The mountain’s narrow pathways Are buried; But rarely did he visit and now Cannot make his way at all. |
Cell of Fragrant Cloud
53
Right
あしたつるみわのひばらにゆきふかみみやぎひくをのかよひぢもなし
| ashi tatsuru miwa no hibara ni yuki fukami miyagi hiku o no kayoiji mo nashi | Reeds stand tall in Miwa, where the cypress groves Are deep with snow; To cut sacred timber, the woodsman Has no path to tread at all. |
Cell of Compassionate Light
54
The Left’s poem, in terms of style and diction, entirely grasps the way someone might feel. What a sense of grief! The Right’s poem is composition that fairly drips and delves into playfulness, but in so doing lacks feeling. Truly, the former poem has superlative qualities, resembling a black dragon’s pearl![i] Thus, the Left must win.
The Left does seem to have been composed but simply stated. It possesses a calm elegance. The Right seems to have been created after a great deal of thought. This poem shows effort and the former such calm that I wish to declare them a tie. This may enrage the poets, but the ignorant may give the appearance of being knowledgeable, as they say. I wonder who composed these…
[i] Riju 驪珠 as an abbreviation of riryū no tama 驪龍の珠 (‘black dragon’s pearl’). Mototoshi uses this analogy deliberately as black dragons were associated with winter. The pearl, which they were often depicted as holding or being located in their throat, was a symbol of the dragon’s spiritual development and a marker of its immortality. This is thus an effusive statement of praise for Shōchō’s poem.
A poem composed and sent on a snowy day to someone who was unable to leave his house on account of an injured leg.
| furu yuki o ika ni aware to nagamuran kokoro wa omou tomo ashi tatazushite | At the falling snow How sadly You must be gazing! Your heart is at my service, but Your leg pays no heed! |
385
Round Sixteen
Left (Win)
よにすめど人しれぬみやしをりするみやまがくれのたにのしたみづ
| yo ni sumedo hito shirenu mi ya shiorisuru miyamagakure no tani no shitamizu | Dwelling within this world, yet No one knows that ‘tis as if I Were marking a trail Hidden deep within the mountains To waters flowing on the valley floor… |
Hiromori
131
Right
あしからむなにはのことはかねてよりちかくてまもれすみよしのかみ
| ashikaramu naniwa no koto wa kanete yori chikakute mamore sumiyoshi no kami | Reaping reeds, should ill fortune come From Naniwa, in all things Just in case Ward me closely O, God of Sumiyoshi! |
Dharma Master Chikyō
132
The poem of the Right here, while it does draw on ‘reaping reeds at Naniwa’, in its phrasing sounds prosaic. As the Left’s ‘waters flowing on the valley floor’ seems to flow smoothly off the tongue, it wins.
Round Twenty-Five
Left
うちしぐれものさびしかるあしのやのこやのねざめにみやここひしも
| uchishigure mono sabishikaru ashi no ya no koya no nezame ni miyako koishi mo | A slight shower is All the more lonely In a reed-roofed Hut in Koya, starting awake and Longing for the capital more… |
Lord Sanesada
99
Right
あはれにもよはにすぐなるしぐれかななれもやたびのそらにいでつる
| aware ni mo yowa ni sugu naru shigure kana nare mo ya tabi no sora ni idetsuru | How sad is At midnight a passing Shower! Have you, too, on a journey Into the skies departed? |
Lord Toshinari
100
The configuration of the Left’s poem, beginning with ‘All the more lonely’ and concluding with ‘Longing for the capital more’, has already penetrated the boundaries of mystery and depth. It sounds particularly pleasant. The poem of the Right is the judge’s own meagre work. Thus, in accordance with precedent I shall refrain from rendering a judgement.
Round Eighteen
Left (Tie)
なにはがたあしのまろやのたびねにはしぐれはのきのしづくにぞしる
| naniwagata ashi no maroya no tabine ni wa shigure wa noki no shizuku ni zo shiru | In Naniwa’s tidelands, In a reed-roofed hut, Dozing on my travels— A shower by the eaves Dripping droplets is revealed! |
Lord Tsunemori
85
Right
つのくにのこやのたびねにしぐれしてなにかはもらむあしのやへぶき
| tsu no kuni no koya no tabine ni shigureshite nani ka wa moramu ashi no yaebuki | In the land of Tsu In Koya, in a hut dozing on my travels During a shower— Will anything drip through My roof’s eightfold thatch? |
Lord Yorisuke
86
Both Left and Right are set in a traveller’s lodge in Sesshū province, but the Left appears to lack configuration and conception, it has long been said that using four of the character in a poem in a poetry match is a fault, but it does not sound to me as if the four uses of no here are a particular problem. With that being said, starting with ‘dozing on my travels’ [tabine ni wa]and then having ‘a shower by the eaves’ [shigure ni wa] uses wa twice and this seems to sound a bit discordant. The Right, while it refers to the same sort of shower from a cloudless sky, starts with ‘during a shower’ and follows this with ‘will anything drip through?’, which seems to sound a bit contradictory. I can’t help but feel it would have been better had it been ‘even though it showers’ and then had ‘will anything’. However, both poems are about reed roofed huts during a shower and it really is difficult to distinguish between them. Thus, I make this a tie.
