Tag Archives: dawn

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 20

Left

こひわぶるひとにあふよのしののめにはわかるといかでみぬよしもがな

koi waburu
hito ni au yo no
shinonome ni wa
wakaru to ikade
minu yoshi mogana
Suffering with love’s fire,
After a night with her
At the edge of dawn
Parting—somehow
‘Twould have been better to have seen her not!

38

Right

なげきつつおもひにあかぬあかつきはこころもゆかぬわかれをぞする

nagekitsutsu
omoi ni akanu
akatsuki wa
kokoro mo yukanu
wakare o zo suru
Ever grieving, and
With my passion’s fire unslaked,
At dawn,
My heart unsatisfied
With our parting!

39

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 19

Left

なみだがはせけどとまらずあかつきのわかれはをしのうきねをぞする

namidagawa
sekedo tomarazu
akatsuki no
wakare wa oshi no
ukine o zo suru
The river of my tears
I dam, yet they cease not:
Dawn’s
Parting I regret, as a mandarin
Drifting in fitful sleep.

36

Right

おきてゆくかたもしられずまどふかななみだもそでもめにさはりつつ

okiteyuku
kata mo shirarezu
madou kana
namida mo sode mo
me ni sawaritsutsu
Rising and departing,
Knowing not where to go,
I am lost!
My tears and my sleeves, too,
Ever sting my eyes…

37

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 18

Left

したひもをゆふつけどりのこゑたちてけさのわかれになきぞわびぬる

shitahimo o
yūtsukedori no
koe tachite
kesa no wakare ni
naki zo wabinuru
Underbelt
Tying with the cockerel’s
Crow, arising,
At this morning’s parting
I weep, all forlorn!

34

Right

かぎりとはおもはぬものをあかつきのわかれのとこはおきうかりけり

kagiri to wa
omowanu mono o
akatsuki no
wakare no toko wa
oki’ukarikeri
My limits
I have not reached, I think, but
At dawn
Parting from your bed,
Rising is so wretched.

35

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 17

Left

あけぬとていまはとおくるとこなかにまたあふべくもおもほえぬかな

akenu tote
ima wa to okuru
toko naka ni
mata aubeku mo
omohoenu kana
‘Tis dawn,
Now, I think, arising—
Within your bed
We should meet again,
Don’t you think!

32

Right

しののめにあけゆくみちもまどはなんあかでわかるるひとのためには

shinonome ni
akeyuku michi mo
madowanan
akade wakaruru
hito no tame ni wa
At the edge of dawn,
Brightening, upon the path
I will wander, lost,
Unsatisfied for I am parted
From her…

33

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 16

Left

をしとおもふいのちにかへてあかつきのわかれのみちはいかでやめてむ

oshi to omou
inochi ni kaete
akatsuki no
wakare no michi wa
ikade yametemu
Filled with regret,
This life I would exchange:
On dawn’s
Parting path
How can I stop my steps?

30

Right

あけぬとてあかずしきみをわかるればこころはゆかぬものにざりける

akenu tote
akazu shi kimi o
wakarureba
kokoro wa yukanu
mono ni zarikeru
When at dawn,
Unsatisfied, from you, my love,
I part,
My heart goes nowhere
At all!

31

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 14

Left

はるのよのあかぬわかれのあかつきはちへのにしきをたつにざりける

haru no yo no
akanu wakare no
akatsuki wa
chie no nishiki o
tatsu ni zarikeru
After a spring night,
Unsatisfied, parting at
The dawn,
Sewn a thousandfold, the brocade
Through which I go!

26

Right

あけぬてふこゑもなみだももろともにうちいづるからにそでぞぬれける

akenu chō
koe mo namida mo
morotomo ni
uchi’izuru kara ni
sode zo nurekeru
‘Tis dawn, say
Birdsongs and tears
Both,
Bursting out, so
My sleeves are soaked!

27

Nishinomiya uta’awase 06

Round Six

Left

雲かかる高志のやまの明暮に妻まどはせるを鹿鳴くなり

kumo kakaru
takashi no yama no
akegure ni
tsuma madowaseru
oshika naku nari
All hung about with cloud
On Takashi Mountain
In the gloaming
Having lost his mate
A stag bells out.

Nakamasa
11

Right

山がつの先あかつきをしりがほに裾野に出でて鹿ぞ鳴くなる

yamagatsu no
mazu akatsuki o
shirigao ni
susono ni idete
shika zo naku naru
A mountain man
First of all, that ‘tis dawn
Knows plain upon his face,
As he sets out upon the slopes
As a stag bells out!

Head
12

The Left poem’s conclusion, ‘Having lost his mate / A stag bells out’ seems no different from that of a poem by Gō no Jijū in poetry match held by the First Princess.[1] As for the poem of the Right’s ‘A mountain man / Awaits the dawn / Knowing plain upon his face’—what on earth might a mountain man look like while waiting for dawn? There is the tale of Hangu Pass in Cathay, where the barrier guard was waiting for dawn and opened the gate after hearing a cock’s crow, but the expression ‘a mountain man awaits the dawn’ has never appeared before in a poem—either one of Cathay or in the words of Yamato, so I feel that both Left and Right lack any superlative qualities.


[1] Stags. をぐら山たちどもみえぬゆふぎりにつままどはせるしかぞなくなる ogurayama / tachidomo mienu / yūgiri ni / tsuma madowaseru / shika zo nakunaru ‘On gloomy Ogura Mountain / Stands unseen / Among the evening mists / Having lost his mate / A belling stag.’ (Yūshi naishinnō-ke uta’awase eishō go-nen 27). This event was held at the residence of Imperial Princess Sukeko (Yūshi) on the 5th day of the Sixth Month, Eishō 5 [26.10.1050]. The poem won its round, and was later included in Goshūishū (IV: 292).

Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 11

Partings at Dawn

Left

ひとしれぬわがみとおもへばあかつきのとりとともにやなきてかへらん

hito shirenu
wa ga mi to omoeba
akatsuki no
tori to tomo ni ya
nakite kaeran
No one knew
Of my sorry state, I thought, so
With the dawn
Birds’ chorus should I,
Sobbing, make my way home?

20

Right

ひとしれずあかでわかるるあかつきにうちなきそふるをしのこゑかな

hito shirezu
akade wakaruru
akatsuki ni
uchinaki souru
oshi no koe kana
No one knows
How unsatisfied I am to part
With the dawn
Sobs overlaying
The cries of the mandarin ducks!

21

Eien narabō uta’awase 20

Round Six

Left

あきの夜のありあけのつきはくまもなしあさくらやまもなのみこそあらめ

aki no yo no
ariake no tsuki wa
kuma mo nashi
asakurayama mo
na nomi koso arame
At an autumn night’s
Dawn, the moon
Has not a cloud before it;
The Mount of Morning Dark
May be so in name alone!

Cell of Fragrant Cloud
39

Right (Win)

秋の月あかしのうらはなびきもにすむわれからのかずも見つべし

aki no tsuki
akashi no ura wa
nabikimo ni
sumu warekara no
kazu mo mitsubeshi
The autumn moon is
Bright above Akashi Bay;
Among the trailing seaweed
Dwell tiny shrimp,
Their number now clear to my eyes.

Cell of Compassionate Light
40

The poem of the Left is an entirely tedious composition. It simply states that a cloudless autumn moon does not fit with the place name, Mount Asakura. The moon at ‘dawn’ is the same as the moon at ‘dawntime’, while Mount Asakura is used when dawn has completely finished. As for the poem of the Right, while the moon is described as bright, it doesn’t seem right to then make it a poem about trailing seaweed—this does not seem charming at all. This round, too, there’s not much more I can say than that.

As I have already mentioned, ‘moon at dawn’ in the poem of the Left is an expression which it is impossible to say is praiseworthy. Even more so, really, the concluding ‘may be so in name alone’ just says ‘is so in name alone’, doesn’t it? It’s contrary to reason to say that it’s fluent and thus, and I say this reluctantly, it’s difficult to understand. As for the Right’s poem, I don’t understand this either: it ought to be ‘their numbers, too, I have been able to see’—saying ‘their number now clear to my eyes’ implies that you haven’t previously been able to see them up to that point, and it’s vague about when you have. Even so, it’s getting light, so the light of the moon at dawn seems superior.