Round Twenty

Left (Tie)

みのうさをわすれぐさこそきしにおふれむべすみよしとあまもいひけれ

mi no usa o wasuregusa koso kishi ni oure mube sumiyoshi to ama mo iikere

The misery of my life I forget among the day lilies Growing on the shore— No wonder, Sumiyoshi is a pleasant place Say the fisherfolk, too!

Kunisuke
139

Right

よをわたるみちをたがへてまどふかないづれのかたにゆきかくれまし

yo o wataru michi o tagaete madou kana izure no kata ni yukikakuremashi

Passing through this world My path I have mistaken and Lost become! Which way should I go to hide myself away?

Horikawa
140

The Left has the poem ‘For folk forget among the day lilies / Growing there, or so they say.’[1] in mind and its conception, drawing upon ‘The misery of my life’ is pleasant, I have to say. The Right has a charming configuration for such a poem, but its similarity to the poem by Lord Toshiyori, ‘Deep in depression on Mount Wabuka / On my path through the world / Have I mis-stepped’[2] means that I feel it sounds hackneyed, yet the final section ‘Which way should I’ and what follows, does sound moving. I should say that these tie.

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[1] Composed and sent to someone he knew who had gone to Sumiyoshi. 住吉とあまはつぐともながゐすな人忘草おふといふなり sumiyoshi to / ama wa tsugu tomo / nagai su na / hito wasuregusa / ou to iu nari ‘Sumiyoshi is a pleasant place to stay, / So say the fisher-folk, yet / Do not stay there long, in Nagai; / For folk forget among the day lilies / Growing there, or so they say.’ Mibu no Tadamine (KKS XVII: 917)

[2] [One of] a hundred poem sequence on feeling regret and shame over one’s fate. わぶか山よにふるみちをふみたがへまどひつたよふ身をいかにせん wabukayama / yo ni furu michi o / fumitagae / madoitsu tayou / mi o ika ni sen ‘Deep in depression on Mount Wabuka / On my path through the world / Have I mis-stepped, and / Wandering lost, / O, what am I to do?’Minamoto no Toshiyori (Sanboku kikashū 1427)