Love on Meeting
Left
ゆめのごとなどかよるのみきみをみんくるるまつまもさだめなきよを
| yume no goto nadoka yoru nomi kimi o min kururu matsu ma mo sadame naki yo o | In every dream Why at night, alone Might I see you? Time spent pining for the dark Is so uncertain… |
23[i]
Right (Win)
あひみてもなほなぐさまぬこころかないくちよねてかこひはさむらむ
| ai mite mo nao nagusamanu kokoro kana iku chiyo nete ka koi wa samuramu | Seeing and meeting you Has not eased My heart! How many thousand nights of sleep Might restore my love to what it was? |
24
[i] An almost identical poem is included in Saigū nyōgo kishi joō uta’awase (23). The same poem is also included in Shūishū (XII: 734), attributed to Tadami, with the headnote ‘From a poetry match held in the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’, and also in Shūishō (VII: 264) as an anonymous poem with the headnote ‘Poetry Match held in the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’.
Round Five
Cherries
Left (Win)
あだなりとつねはしりにきさくらばなをしむほどだにのどけからなん
| adanari to tsune wa shiriniki sakurabana oshimu hodo dani nodokekaranan | That ‘tis fleeting Ever have I known of The cherry blossom, but Even when filled with regret They seem to ease my heart. |
Asatada
10[i]
Right
よとともにちらずもあらなむさくら花あかぬ心はいつかたゆべき
| yo to tomo ni chirazu mo aranamu sakurabana akanu kokoro wa itsu ka tayubeki | Through all the passing ages I would that you not scatter, O, cherry blossom! Never sated, when might my heart, Ever get its fill of you? |
The Left’s poem expresses the truth of things and has no faults to mention. Its diction is not that good, but it sounds honest. The Right’s poem concluding emotions fail to match reality, which means the poem’s overall quality is inferior. Thus, the Left wins.
[i] Two different variants of this poem occur in other collections: A poem from the Palace Poetry Match held in Tentoku 4. あだなりとつねはしりにきさくらばなをらむほどだにのどけからなん adanari to / tsune wa shiriniki / sakurabana / oramu hodo dani / nodokekaranan ‘That ‘tis fleeting / Ever have I known of / The cherry blossom, but / Even when plucking them, / They seem to ease my heart.’ Middle Counsellor Asatada (Mandaishū II: 272); and: Cherries, from the Palace Poetry Match held in Tentoku 4. あだなりとかねてしりにきさくら花をしむほどだにのどけかるらん adanari to / kanete shiriniki / sakurabana / oshimu hodo dani / nodokekaruran ‘That ‘tis fleeting / Did I know before of / The cherry blossom, but / Even when filled with regret / They seem to ease my heart.’ Middle Counsellor Asatada (Shoku senzaishū II: 140)
[ii] The text of the match reads ‘Motosuke’ here, but as he did not take part in this event, I have corrected this to ‘Motozane’ (Hagitani and Taniyama 1965, 81).
[iii] This poem is included in Goshūishū (I: 138), with the headnote ‘From the Tentoku 4 Poetry Match’, although here it is attributed to Kanemori.
Sent to the Princess of the Fourth.[i]
葦たづの沢辺に年はへぬれども心は雲のうへにのみこそ
| asitadu no saFabe ni tosi Fa Fenuredomo kokoro Fa kumo no uFe ni nomi koso | Among the reeds, a crane, By the marsh’s edge years Have passed, yet, His heart is for the clouds’ Heights, alone… |
The Minister of the Right
753
[i] Princess Isoko (Kinshi) 勤子 (904-938), the fifth daughter of Emperor Daigo 醍醐 (885-930; r. 897-930) (her sobriquet comes from her rank – shihon 四品 (‘Fourth Order’). She was to marry Fujiwara no Morosuke 藤原師輔 (909-960), who writes to her here, in 930, after a secret affair, becoming the first imperial princess to marry a commoner. She is chiefly remembered today, however, as the patron of Minamoto no Shitagō 源順 (911-983) who ordered him to produce Japan’s first dictionary, Wamyō ruijushō 和名類聚抄 (931-938).
A poem composed on seeing the lake at Hakone when I had made a pilgrimage to the twin shrines[i] the following year.[ii]
玉くしげはこねのみ海けけれあれやふたくにかけてなかにたゆたふ
| tamakushige hakone no miumi kekere are ya futakuni kakete naka ni tayutou | A jewelled comb, The fair waters of Hakone, Must have a heart, indeed, to Lie between two provinces, There adrift…[iii] |
698
[i] Hakone and Izu Shrines.
[ii] The reference here is obscure, but may refer to Sanetomo’s third pilgrimage to these shrines, which took place in the First Month, Kenryaku 3 [late January 1213] (Higuchi 2016, 182).
[iii] See: A song from Kai. かひがねをさやにも見しがけけれなくよこほりふせるさやの中山 kai ga ne o / saya ni mo mishi ga / kekerenaku / yokohori fuseru / saya no nakayama ‘The peaks of Kai / Clearly I would behold, but / Heartless, / You lie in my way, / O, Saya-no-Nakayama!’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XX: 1097)
Composed as an insect poem, when he composed a hundred poem sequence bewailing his sorry lot around the Hōen period [1135-1141].
さりともとおもふこころもむしのねもよわりはてぬる秋のくれかな
| saritomo to omoFu kokoro mo musi no ne mo yowariFatenuru aki no kure kana | That’s just how it is I thought within my heart, too, As the insects’ cries, too Weakened On an autumn evening! |
Master of the Dowager Empress Household Office Toshinari
