miyakobe ni yume ni mo yukamu tayori araba utsu no yamakaze fuki mo tsuteyo
If towards the capital, Even to her dreams would you go, and Be my messenger, O, Utsu Mountain breeze, Blow, and tell her…[i]
599
[i] See: While at Utsu Mountain in Suruga, he thought of someone he had been meeting and sent this to the capital. するがなるうつの山邊のうつゝにも夢にも人にあはぬなりけり suruga naru / utsu no yamabe no / utsutsu ni mo / yume ni mo hito ni / awanu narikeri ‘In Suruga / At the Utsu mountains / In truth and / In my dreams she / Is nowhere to be seen…’ Ariwara no Narihira (Shinkokinshū X: 904)
Composed on the conception of love at a famous location
とよ国の菊のながはま夢にだにまだみぬ人に恋ひやわたらん
toyokuni no kiku no nagahama yume ni dani mada minu hito ni koi ya wataran
In the land of Toyo, in the western isle, Lies the long beach of Kiku, I hear— Even in my dreams Have I yet to see her, but Will my love for her go on and on?
yume nomi mo kayoedo aranu arikiji ka utsutsu ni ikade miru yoshi mogana
Simply in my dreams Do I go back and forth, yet have no Lover’s path to walk, so In the waking world, somehow, I wish I had a way to see her!
21
This poem is an acrostic with ‘bellflower’ (kichikau) contained in arikiji ka utsutsu. Old Japanese was written without indicating voicing, so chi and ji would have been identical at the time.
maki no ya no shigure no oto ni yume samete miyako koishiki ne ni zo nurenuru
Beneath a roof of cypress boards The sound of showers Wakes me from my dreams, and Longing for the capital I drench myself with weeping.
Chūnagon 55
Right (Win)
たびねするのぢのしばやにおとづれてすぐるはよはのしぐれなりけり
tabinesuru noji no shibaya ni otozurete suguru wa yowa no shigure narikeri
Sleeping on my travels Cross the plains in a brushwood hut A sound comes calling, Passing by at midnight— A shower.
Sokaku 56
The style of the Left’s poem is elegant but, in addition to feeling that there may well be cypress roofs in places other than the capital, the final line is insufficient, I think. The Right’s poem has nothing remarkable about it, but it sounds pleasant. I make it the winner.
