Tag Archives: iwa

SZS VIII: 544

A travel poem, included in a hundred poem sequence sent to be read by the Monk En’i.

岩根ふみ峰の椎柴折りしきて雲に宿かるゆふぐれの空

iFane Fumi
mine no siFisiba
worisikite
kumo ni yadokaru
yuFugure no sora
Treading ‘cross the deep-rooted crags
From brushwood on the peak
I break branches and spread them
Making my lodging beneath the clouds
Gazing at the evening skies…

Jakuren

Spring III: 19

Left (Win).

山吹の花のさかりになりぬとや折知りがほに蛙鳴くらん

yamabuki no
hana no sakari ni
narinu to ya
ori shirigao ni
kawazu nakuran
Golden kerria
Blooms their peak
Have reached, so
Seeming to know the season
Do the frogs sing on.

Lord Suetsune.

157

Right.

谷水の岩もる音はうづもれてすだく河づの聲のみぞする

tanimizu no
iwa moru oto wa
uzumorete
sudaku kawazu no
koe nomi zo suru
Waters in the valley
Soak the rocks – the sound
Swallowed by
Swarming frogs’
Singular songs.

Ietaka.

158

Both teams say that they consider the other’s poem to be ‘trite’ [kyūbutsu] this round.

Shunzei’s judgement: The Left’s poem certainly certainly has a conception [kokoro] which one is well-accustomed to hearing, but I am unable to recall exactly where. In form it is well-constructed [utazama yoroshikuhaberubeshi]. The Right’s initial “Waters in the valley soak the rocks – the sound swallowed” (tanimizu no iwa moru oto wa uzumorete) is excellent [yū], but the latter part is definitely old-fashioned [furite]. Thus, the Left must win.