みるままにわがすがたをばかきてましちぢのこがねををしまざりせば
miru mama ni wa ga sugata oba kakitemashi chiji no kogane o oshimazariseba | While gazing upon My form I how I would be painted; For my thousand-weight of gold Will bring me no regrets… |
Kanemasa
みるままにわがすがたをばかきてましちぢのこがねををしまざりせば
miru mama ni wa ga sugata oba kakitemashi chiji no kogane o oshimazariseba | While gazing upon My form I how I would be painted; For my thousand-weight of gold Will bring me no regrets… |
Kanemasa
Left (Tie)
ます鏡うつしかへけむ姿ゆへ影絶えはてし契をぞ知る
masukagami utsushikaekemu sugata yue kage taehateshi chigiri o zo shiru |
A clear glass Will reflect back My true face, yet A form fixed forever Reveals his my vow to me… |
A Servant Girl
1113
Right
戀妻に似てや書らん見つるより絵にも心をうつしつる哉
koizuma ni nite ya kakuran mitsuru yori e ni mo kokoro o utsushitsuru kana |
My beloved wife: Does this so resemble her, that at The mere sight of The painting, my heart Does move? |
Lord Tsune’ie
1114
The Right state: the Left’s poem has no faults. The Left state: the Right’s poems contains a fault, does it not?
In judgement: What are we to make of the Left’s ‘In a clear glass my ever-changing reflected’ (masukagami utsushikaekemu)? While I have the feeling that there is a source for this poem, this aged official is completely unable to grasp it what it might be. It is not the case that the poem is lacking in an elegant style. The Gentlemen of the Left have commented on the existence of a fault in the Right’s poem. Perhaps the two cranes (tsuru)? This type of issue relating to a poem’s formal diction does not seem that serious to me. However, saying ‘does this so resemble her, that at’ (nite ya kakuran) is insufficient in terms of expression. The Left’s ‘clear glass’ would win, if its source were clear, but in its absence, it is difficult to make it the winner.
Composed as a love poem when a hundred poem sequence was presented to former Emperor Sutoku.
恋をのみ菅田の池に水草ゐてすまでやみなむ名こそ惜しけれ
koFi wo nomi sugata no ike ni mikusa wite sumade yaminamu na koso woshikere |
Our love is simply Form – Sugata Pond Fills with waterweed, and Grows stagnant – such an ending Leaves only regret… |
Ikuhōmon’in no Aki
郁芳門院安芸
This poem is also Kyūan hyakushu 1266.