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.
惜しめども花もとまらぬ不破の関山吹越ゆる春の嵐に
oshimedomo
hana mo tomaranu
fuwa no seki
yamabuki koyuru
haru no arashi ni |
I do regret it, but
The blossoms will not halt
At the barrier of Fuwa;
Passing over the golden kerria
In the storms of spring… |
Asukai no Masatsune (1170-1221)
飛鳥井雅経
When a woman who had long been in the same house left, on hearing that her parents in the province of Mino were unwell.
今はとて立帰ゆくふるさとの不破の関路に都忘るな
ima Fa tote
taikaFeriyuku
Furusato no
Fuwa no sekidi ni
miyako wasuruna |
“Now is the time,” you say
Getting up to leave for
Your home on
The roads past the barrier of Fuwa,
Don’t forget the capital! |
Fujiwara no Kiyotada (? – 958)
藤原清正
On the fourteeth day of the Second Month, when Senior Assistant Lieutenant Okinagara no Mahito of the Senior Seventh Rank, Upper Grade, was sent to Kunishima as a gubernatorial messenger concerning the changing of the border guard in Hitachi province.
足柄の み坂給はり 返り見ず 我れは越え行く 荒し夫も 立しやはばかる 不破の関 越えて我は行く 馬の爪 筑紫の崎に 留まり居て 我れは斎はむ 諸々は 幸くと申す 帰り来までに
asigara no
misaka tamapari
kaperimizu
are pa kueyuku
arasi wo mo
tasi ya habakaru
puwa no seki
kuete wa pa yuku
muma no tume
tukusi no saki ni
timariwite
ware pa ipapamu
moromoro pa
sakeku to mawosu
kaperiku made |
In Ashigara,
Misaka will I pass through
Never looking back
Will I go on;
A rough man
Cannot pass
The barrier of Fuwa
But I will go on;
My horse’s hooves
At the point of Tsukushi
Will I halt, and
There take my ease;
To all of you:
I wish you well
Until I return again! |
'Simply moving and elegant'