Round Twenty-One
Left
ひさかたの月もひかりをやはらげてしめのうちにはすむにやあるらむ
| hisakata no tsuki mo hikari o yawaragete shime no uchi ni wa sumu ni ya aruramu | The eternal Moon, too, his light Has softened, that Within the sacred grounds Should be more clear, perhaps? |
Lord Fujiwara no Asamune
Supernumerary Governor of Suruga
Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade[1]
41
Right (Win)
月かげをゆきかとみればすみよしのあけのたまがきいろもかくれず
| tsukikage o yuki ka to mireba sumiyoshi no ake no tamagaki iro mo kakurezu | When, upon the moonlight, I looked and wondered if ‘twas snow, At Sumiyoshi The vermillion jewelled fences’ Hues were not concealed at all. |
Lord Fujiwara no Kanetsuna
Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade
Without Office[2]
42
The Left’s ‘Moon, too, his light / Has softened’ and so forth seems a charming configuration, but it is unclear from this whether the moon is shining more gently within the sacred grounds. Although I do wonder about the sound of beginning with ‘I looked and wondered if ‘twas snow’ and abruptly ending with ‘Hues were not concealed at all’, the conception seems clearly expressed in the diction and so I make the Right the winner.
[1] Suruga gonkami jūgoige Fujiwara ason Asamune駿河権守従五位下藤原朝臣朝宗
[2] San’i jūgoige Fujiwara ason Kanetsuna 散位従五位下藤原朝臣懐綱
Dew upon the plains.
久かたの空とぶかりのなみだかもおほあらきののささのうへのつゆ
| hisakata no ama tobu kari no namida kamo ōarakino no sasa no ue no tsuyu | Eternal Heaven-flying goose Tears, perhaps? Upon Ōaraki Plain, Dew upon the dwarf-bamboo…[1] |
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. なきわたるかりの涙やおちつらむ物思ふやどの萩のうへのつゆ nakiwataru / kari no namida ya / ochitsuran / mono’omou yado no / hagi no ue no tsuyu ‘Calling across / Did the geese let tears / Fall? / My dwelling, lost in thought, / Has dew upon the bush clover.’ Anonymous (KKS IV:221); and: 如是為而也 尚哉将老 三雪零 大荒木野之 小竹尓不有九二 kakushite ya / nao ya oinuramu / miyuki furu / ōarakino no / shino ni aranaku ni ‘Is this how it is to be? / Have I yet grown old / Though covered with fair snow / On Ōaraki Plain / An arrow-bamboo I am not…’ Anonymous (MYS VII: 1349).
Spring
Composed on the First day of the First Month
今朝みれば山もかすみて久かたのあまのはらより春は来にけり
| kesa mireba yama mo kasumite hisakata no ama no hara yori haru wa kinikeri | Gazing out this morning The mountains are all hazed From the eternal Plains of Heaven[i] Spring has come, at last! |
1
[i] The reference to the ‘plains of Heaven’ (ama no hara 天の原) being ‘eternal’ (hisakata 久方) implies that the poet has been long awaiting the arrival of spring—a nuance which I have attempted to capture with the final ‘at last’.
