Tag Archives: ice

Spring I: 16

Left (Tie).

春風に池の氷や解けぬらん待たれぬ浪の花を見る哉

haru kaze ni
ike no kôri ya
tokenuran
matarenu nami no
hana o miru kana
In the breath of spring
Will the ice upon the pond
Melt?
Unanticipated blossom touched
Waves come into view…

Lord Kanemune.

31

Right (Tie).

鶯のなみだのつらゝ聲ながらたよりにさそへ春の山水

uguisu no
namida no tsurara
koe nagara
tayori ni sasoe
haru no yama mizu
The bush warbler’s
Tears of ice,
And song,
Issue an invitation!
To the mountain waters this springtime…

Jakuren.

32

The Right team have no comments to make about the Left’s poem this round, but the Left wonder whether the essence of the poem, of the warbler’s ‘tears of ice’ and song inviting the waters, might not be a bit much?

Shunzei remarks that the form and phrasing of the Left’s poem is ‘certainly charming’, and echoes their criticism of the Right’s poem, as having an ‘impossible essence’. He then goes on to say, ‘The Left is placidly charming; the Right’s essence must be excessive. They are equivalent and I judge this round a tie.’

Spring I: 14

Left (Tie).

氷ゐし水の白浪立かへり春風しるき池の面かな

kōri i
shimizu no shiranami
tachikaeri

harukaze shiruki
ike no omo kana
To the iced
Clear waters waves of white
Return again;
Spring’s breezes well know
This mere’s face.

Lord Sada’ie

27

Right (Tie).

諏方の海の氷のうへの通ひ路はけさ吹く風に跡絶えにけり

suwa no umi no
kōri no ue no
kayoiji wa
kesa fuku kaze ni
ato taenikeri
At the Sea of Suwa
Upon the ice
The trackways,
With the breath of wind this morning
Have left no trace at all…

The Master of the Empress’ Household Office.

28

The Right team state that the concluding line of the Left’s poem, ‘this mere’s face’ (ike no omo kana) is ‘weak’. The Left team reply that the first three lines of the Right’s poem are identical to those of a poem by Minamoto no Akinaka (1064-1138), in the Hundred Poem Sequence from the Reign of Former Emperor Horikawa (a sequence composed by a number of poets between 1104-07 and presented to Horikawa):

諏方の海の氷のうへの通ひ路は神の渡りて解くるなりけり

suFa no umi no
koFori no uFe no
kayoFidi Fa
kami no watarite
tokuru narikeri
At the Sea of Suwa
Upon the ice
The trackways,
With the passage of the God
Have melted.

and that this gave the poem its idea.

Shunzei comments that ‘waters waves of white/Return again’ is a ‘well-worn’ image with nothing special about it, and the Right team have already identified the weakness of the final line, and, of course, it ‘could not be as strong as a Deva King!’ As for the Right’s poem, he accepts the point made by the Left, but as it is not well-known that even in Hundred Poem sequences there are examples which are not ‘excellent work’, it is difficult to completely avoid composing poems with conceptions that resemble them. Thus, the round has to be a tie.

SZS XVI: 961

In the reign of Retired Emperor Ichijō, when the Empress contributed to the Gosechi Dances, on the last day she presented 12 girls of her retinue, all, down to the lowest, dressed in aozuri; when one of them, Hyōe by name, was tying her scarlet belt, she asked someone to do it up for her; hearing this, Captain Sanekata, saying he would do it, recited, “Leg-wearying/The mountain spring waters/Are frozen, yet/What belt/Will melt it, I wonder?” On hearing him, Sei Shōnagon composed this in reply:

うは氷あはにむすべるひもなればかざす日影にゆるぶばかりを

uFa koFori
aFa ni musuberu
Fimo nareba
kazazu Fikage ni
yurubu bakari wo
The ice above is
Light as foam-and lightly tied
Is this belt-so
Shining sunlight
Alone will loosen it!

Sei Shōnagon
清少納言

SZS VI: 443

When His Majesty requested a hundred poem sequence, he composed this as an ice poem.

月さゆる氷のうへに霰ふりこゝろくだくるたまがはの里

tuki sayuru
koFori no uFe ni
arare Furi
kokoro kudakuru
tamagaFa no sato
The moon so bright
Upon the ice
Hail falls
Breaking my heart
In my Tama River home.

Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household Office [Fujiwara no] Toshinari
藤原俊成