Ancient Estates 故郷
よもぎ分けたづねぞきぬる古郷は花たちばなのかをしるべにて
| yomogi wake tazune zo kinuru furusato wa hanatachibana no ka o shirube nite | Forging through the mugwort To visit have I come To this ancient estate, with Orange blossom’s Scent as my guide… |
Daishin
Tag Archives: furusato
Eikyū hyakushu 552
Eikyū hyakushu 551
Eikyū hyakushu 548
KKS II: 111
Love VIII: 30
Left (Tie)
忘れじの契うらむる故郷の心も知らぬ松蟲の聲
| wasureji no chigiri uramuru furusato no kokoro mo shiranu matsumushi no koe |
Never will I forget you – Despairing of that vow At home All unknowing of my feelings Comes a bell cricket’s cry… |
Lord Sada’ie
1079
Right
來ぬ人の秋のけしきやふけぬらん恨みによはる松蟲の聲
| konu hito no aki no keshiki ya fukenuran urami ni yowaru matsumushi no koe |
He comes not, so Is all seeming done, as autumn Does wear on? How I envy the weakening Bell cricket’s song… |
Jakuren
1080
Left and Right: both poems are equally admirable.
In judgement: the Left’s poem, with ‘all unknowing of my feelings comes a bell cricket’s cry’ (kokoro mo shiranu matsumushi no koe) is fine. The Right, with ‘is all seeming done, as autumn does wear on’ (aki no keshiki ya fukenuran), is too, so both Left and Right do truly move the heart, do they not? I have no way of distinguishing superior from inferior here, so thus must make the round a tie.
Love VII: 24
Left (Tie).
故郷に見し面影も宿りけり不破の関屋の板間洩る月
| furusato ni mishi omokage mo yadorikeri fuwa no sekiya no itama moru tsuki |
Back home I saw her face, and It lodges here, At the Barrier House at Fuwa, In the moonlight leaking through the boards. |
A Servant Girl
1007
Right.
人恋ふる我ながめよ思けり須磨の関屋の有明の月
| hito kouru ware nagameyo omoikeri suma no sekiya no ariake no tsuki |
Loving you, I will ever gaze, I thought, At the Barrier House at Suma On the dawntime moon. |
Nobusada
1008
The Right state: the Left’s poem is good. The Left state: the Right’s poem lacks any faults to indicate.
In judgement: the Left’s ‘Barrier House at Fuwa’ (fuwa no sekiya) followed by ‘the moonlight leaking through the boards’ (itama moru tsuki) is truly charming. In addition, if one wonders why ‘I saw her face’ (mishi omokage mo) has been used, it is certainly reminiscent of the poem ‘The dawntime moon, too, lodges in the waters clear’, but an improvement on it. It is difficult to say, however, that the Right’s ‘At the Barrier House at Suma on the dawntime moon’ (suma no sekiya no ariake no tsuki) is in any way inferior.
Eikyū hyakushu 223
Love V: 30
Left (Tie).
故郷を出でしにまさる涙かな嵐の枕夢に別れて
| furusato ni ideshi ni masaru namida kana arashi no makura yume ni wakarete |
My home I left in floods Of tears; The wild wind round my pillow Breaks us apart in dreams… |
Lord Sada’ie
899
Right.
東路の夜半の眺めを語らなん都の山にかゝる月影
| azumaji no yowa no nagame o kataranan miyako no yama ni kakaru tsukikage |
Upon the eastern roads All night I turn my gaze – Tell him that, O moonlight, sinking Toward the mountains round the capital! |
Nobusada
900
Both Left and Right say they find no faults.
In judgement: the Left starts with ‘My home I left in floods’ (furusato ni ideshi ni masaru) and concludes with ‘the wild wind round my pillow breaks us apart in dreams’ (arashi no makura yume ni wakarete) – this is a form of words the quality of which I am entirely unable to convey with my own clumsy expressions, but the Right’s ‘O moonlight, sinking toward the mountains round the capital’ (miyako no yama ni kakaru tsukikage) is awash with a sense of tears, so it is most unclear which should win or lose. Both truly seem to reflect the conception of this topic ‘Love and Travel’ well. The poems have been so good every round that my brush is drenched with this old man’s tears, and I can find no other way to express it.
GSIS IV: 270
Composed for a picture based on the Song of Everlasting Woe, for the scene where Xuanzong had returned home and the emperor was depicted weeping with insects calling from the withered cogon grass all around him.
ふるさとは浅茅が原と荒れはてて夜すがら虫の音をのみぞ鳴く
| Furusato Fa asadi ga Fara to areFatete yosugara musi no ne nomi zo naku |
My old home With cogon grass is Entirely overgrown; All night the insects Simply let forth their cries… |
Dōmei
道命