Having fallen ill and long been in seclusion, he recovered somewhat and, attending at the palace, met with Major Controller of the Right Kintada, who was then a chamberlain. He left, saying that he would surely return the day after tomorrow, but his illness worsened and approaching his end, he sent this to Kintada.
くやしくぞ のちにあはむと 契りける 今日をかぎりと 言はましものを
kuyashiku zo nochi ni awamu to chigirikeru kyō o kagiri to iwamashi mono o
I am struck with bitterness! Once more would we meet Did I vow, but Today I meet my end— That is what I would say…
shigaraki no toyama no sue no hototogisu ta ga sato chikaki hatsune naruran
In Shigaraki At the foothills’ end A cuckoo By whose estate Might let out his first cry?
Takasuke 41
Right
橘のにほひを空に尋ねきて山時鳥なかぬ日ぞなき
tachibana no nioi o sora ni tazunekite yamahototogisu nakanu hi zo naki
Orange blossom’s familiar Scent within the skies I seek out, while The mountain cuckoo Fails to sing on not a single day…
Shimotsuke 42
The Left poem’s ‘near whose estate does it first call’ does not sound bad. The Right’s poem, too, seems to have no faults to mention, yet the Left still wins by a hair.
ware mo ikade yo ni nagaraete sumiyoshi no matsu no chitose no yukusue mo mimu
Somehow, I, too, Would endure in this world, that Sumiyoshi’s Pine’s thousand years End I would see!
Masahira 125
Right
たとへけむなみはわがみにあらはれぬこぎゆくふねのあとはほかかは
tatoekemu nami wa wagami ni arawarenu kogiyuku fune no ato wa hoka ka wa
Might I compare The waves, which on my sorry self Have made their mark, with A boat rowing out, leaving A wake, or if not that then what? [1]
Chikashige 126
The Left seems to be imagining something very unrealistic. The Right has the poem ‘To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking’ in mind, and appears to have the charming conception of sorrowing over the face of Grand Duke Jiang appearing in the waves on the Wei River, but ‘if not that then what?’ sounds a bit overblown. With that being said, the Left feels like a plea for good fortune, and the Right evokes impermanence. The matters are only distantly connected, and thus in terms of faults and merits they are equal.
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. 世の中をなににたとへむあさぼらけこぎゆく舟のあとのしら浪 yo no naka o / nani ni tatoemu / asaborake / kogiyuku fune no / ato no shiranami ‘This mundane world: / To what should I compare it? / Just as dawn is breaking, / A boat rows out / Whitecaps in its wake.’ Novice Mansei (SIS XX: 1327)
