When I had gone out to view Mount Hakone, there were islets with waves breaking over them. When I asked my companions if they knew the name of the sea there, and the answer came back that it was the Izu sea.
はこねぢをわがこえくれば伊豆の海やおきのこじまに浪のよるみゆ
| hakoneji o wa ga koekureba izu no umi ya oki no kojima ni nami no yoru miyu | When Hakone’s trails I have passed across, The sea at Izu, filled With islets in the offing’s Breaking waves, I see. |
593
The beginning of spring by the sea.
しほがまの浦の松風かすむなりやそしまかけて春や立つらん
| shiogama no ura no matsukaze kasumu nari yasoshima kakete haru ya tatsuran | At Shiogama Shore the wind through the pines Carries haze over Countless islets— Has spring arrived, I wonder? |
8
Left (Win)
うかりける我み山木の契かな連なる枝もありとこそ聞け
| ukarikeru wa ga mi yamagi no chigiri kana tsuranaru eda mo ari to koso kike |
In despair Am I: hidden among the mountain trees Is my love; Though once branches lay atop each other I did hear… |
Lord Suetsune
1039
Right
涙には憂き深山木も朽ちぬべし沖つ小嶋のひさきならねど
| namida ni wa uki fukayamagi mo kuchinubeshi oki tsu kojima no hisaki naranedo |
Among my tears, Drift, despairing, trees from the mountain deeps, Rotting all away, though On islets in the offing On bush-covered beaches, they are not… |
Lord Tsune’ie
1040
Both Left and Right state: we find no faults.
In judgement: both Left and Right use the image of ‘trees from the mountain deeps’ (fukayamagi), and neither is superior, or inferior, to the other in this, but I would have to say that the Left’s ‘though once branches lay atop each other I did hear…’ (tsuranaru eda mo ari to koso kike) is somewhat better than the Right’s ‘on bush-covered beaches, they are not…’ (hisaki naranedo).
