Tag Archives: asuka river

Aru tokoro no uta’awase zassai

水の泡や種となるらむ浮草のまく人なみの上に生ふれば

mizu no awa ya
tane to naruramu
ukikusa no
maku hitonami no
ue ni oureba
Might the foam upon the waters
Be its seeds, perhaps?
When the drifting waterweed
Twines atop a wave
Where it does grow…

1[i]

山里は冬ぞさびしさまさりける人めも草もかれぬとおもへば

yamazato wa
fuyu zo sabishisa
masarikeru
hitome mo kusa mo
karenu to omoeba
In a mountain retreat
Winter’s loneliness
Overwhelms
As both folks’ gaze and the grasses, too
Have withered away, I feel…

2[ii]

今日人をこふる心はあすか川流るる水に劣らざりけり

kyō hito o
kouru kokoro wa
asukagawa
nagaruru mizu ni
otorazarikeri
Today, for her
The love within my heart,
By the River Asuka’s
Running waters
Will not be outdone!

3[iii]


[i] This poem is included in Shūishū (IX: 524) as an anonymous poem with the headnote ‘Produced but not matched in a poetry contest.’

[ii] This poem is included in Muneyuki-shū (15) with the headnote ‘For a poetry match’.

[iii] This poem is included in Muneyuki-shū (16) with the headnote ‘For a poetry match’.

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 21

Round Twenty-One

Left (Win)

小倉山木木のもみぢのくれなゐはみねの嵐のおろすなりけり

ogurayama
kigi no momiji no
kurenai wa
mine no arashi no
orosu narikeri
On gloomy Mount Ogura
The leaves upon the trees,
So scarlet,
By the storm wind from the peak
Are tossed down.

Lord Kiyosuke
41

Right

ふかくあさきもみぢばながるあすか河ふちせは色にあらはれにけり

fukaku asaki
momijiba nagaru
asukagawa
fuchise wa iro ni
arawarenikeri
Across both depths and shallows
Flow the scarlet leaves
On the Asuka river,
Among the rapids and the pools
Have they appeared.

Shun’e
42

Neither of these is bad. The Right violates the five syllable pattern; the Left has no faults.