A shower at a journey’s lodging
たびの空なれぬはにふのよるのとこ侘しきまでにもる時雨かな
| tabi no sora narenu hanyū no yoru no toko wabishiki made ni moru shigure kana | Beneath a journey’s skies With unfamiliar mud walls Around my bed tonight, Sad and lonely have I become With the shower dripping through![i] |
581
[i] See: On disembarking. 旅のそらはにふのこやのいぶせさにふるさといかにこひしかるらん tabi no sora / hanyū no koya no / ibusesa ni / furusato ika ni / koishikaruran ‘Beneath a journey’s skies / Within a mud hut and / Filled with gloom / For my ancient home how much / I do seem to long…’ Captain of the Third Rank Shigehira (Heike monogatari 85)
Round Fourteen
Left
こころあれやかきなくらしそはつしぐれまださしはてずしばのかりいほ
| kokoro are ya kaki na kurashi so hatsushigure mada sashihatezu shiba no kari’io | Have some sympathy, And bring no darkness, O, first shower! For I have yet to finish putting up My crude brushwood hut… |
Lord Suetsune
77
Right (Win)
すみよしのまつがしたねのたびまくらしぐれもかぜにききまがへつつ
| sumiyoshi no matsu ga shita ne no tabimakura shigure mo kaze ni kikimagaetsutsu | At Sumiyoshi Beneath the pines, their roots are My journey-pillow, as The shower, too, with the gusting wind I hear blending together. |
Takanobu
78
The Left’s latter section, which states that the poet has ‘yet to finish putting up’ his hut, has a truly charming configuration as a poem on the conception of travel, but the phrase ‘have some sympathy’ does not appear to be a conception which has prior precedent. It could be a way of expressing the emotion through the shower. As for the Right, while I do question the sound of ‘journey-pillow’, it is the case that in Cathay-style poems this appears, but what are we do to about the fact that this is not ‘pillow on my journey’, I wonder? The sequencing of ‘the shower, too, with the wind’ is pleasant, isn’t it. Thus, I make the Right the winner.
Round Thirteen
Left
しぐれもるたびねのとこははなぞめのたもとぞさきにまづかへりける
| shigure moru tabine no toko wa hanazome no tamoto zo saki ni mazu kaerikeru | A shower drips upon me As I doze upon my journey-bed; Blossom-dyed, My sleeves, before me, Have first returned to what they were! |
Masahira
75
Right (Win)
はなれゆくみやこをおもふひとりねのなみだをさそふはつしぐれかな
| hanareyuku miyako o omou hitorine no namida o sasou hatsushigure kana | Distant has grown The capital, but it fills my thoughts, Sleeping solo, My tears invited by The first shower! |
Chikashige
76
The configuration of the Left’s poem appears charming, but it would have sounded more so had there been a reason why ‘my sleeves, before’ had returned to the capital on the journey. The diction and conception of the Right’s poem, beginning with ‘distant has grown’ and leading to ‘tears invited’, is extremely pleasant. It seems the Right wins.
Round Eleven
Left (Win)
かりのいほはそそくしぐれもとまらねばつゆわけごろもほしぞかねつる
| kari no io wa sosoku shigure mo tomaraneba tsuyuwakegoromo hoshi zo kanetsuru | Upon my crude hut, Dripping, the showers, too, Never cease, so My dew-soaked garb To dry is impossible! |
Kyō
71
Right
さらぬだにたびねのとこはつゆけきにいかにせよとてうちしぐるらむ
| saranu dani tabine no toko wa tsuyukeki ni ika ni seyo tote uchishigururamu | Even ‘twere not to be, My journey-bed is Drenched with dew, so What am I to do, Beneath these falling showers? |
Suehiro
72
The Left has ‘dripping, the showers, too’, while the Right has ‘what am I to do’ and so forth—while neither of these is poor in terms of conception and diction, the initial section of the Right sounds extremely commonplace, thus the Left’s conception of agonizing over the being unable to dry dew-soaked garb is slightly superior in the current context.
Major Captain of the Left Asamitsu had not visited her for a long time, when he came to see her on her travels; having no pillow, they wove one out of grass.
あふことはこれやかぎりの旅ならん草のまくらも霜がれにけり
| au koto wa kore ya kagiri no tabi naran kusa no makura mo shimogarenikeri | Will our meeting Here be the limit of Our journey? Even our grassy pillow Seared by distant frosts… |
The Uma Handmaid
Sent to a lady he had been seeing secretly on the morning after he had returned home, after they had met at a temporary lodging.
かぎりなくむすびおきつる草枕いつこのたびをおもひわすれん
| kagirinaku musubi’okitsuru kusamakura itsu kono tabi o omoiwasuren | Beyond all limits were The ties laid down between Our grassy pillows, so When this journey Might we ever be able to forget? |
Kentoku-kō
For a folding screen depicting a large number of travellers lying beneath blossom.
木のもとにやどりはすべし桜花ちらまくをしみ旅ならなくに
| ko no moto ni yadori wa subeshi sakurabana chiramaku oshimi tabi naranaku ni | Beneath this tree Let me lodge a while, for The cherry blossoms’ Scattering I do regret, so I’ve no cause to journey on my way… |
Left
さよふけてなどかなくらむほととぎすたびねのやどをかすひとやなき
| sayo fukete nado ka nakuramu hototogisu tabine no yado o kasu hito ya naki | Brief night breaks, so Why does he cry so? The cuckoo A lodging on his journey Has no one to lend him! |
49
Right (Win)
なつのいけによるべさだめぬうきくさのみづよりほかにゆくかたもなし
| natsu no ike ni yorube sadamenu ukikusa no mizu yori hoka ni yuku kata mo nashi | Upon the pond in summer No destination has The waterweed, so Other than the water It has no place to go… |
Okikaze
50
Left (Tie)
ふるさとにかすみとびわけゆくかりはたびのそらにやはるをすぐらむ
| furusato ni kasumi tobiwake yuku kari wa tabi no sora ni ya haru o suguramu | Above an ancient estate Flying through the parting haze Go the geese: In the skies they journey through, I wonder, will they pass the springtime? |
Mitsune
19
Right
ちるはなをぬきしとめねばあをやぎのいとはよるともかひやなからむ
| chiru hana o nukishi tomeneba aoyagi no ito wa yoru tomo kai ya nakaramu | The scattered blossom Has been pierced, but not stayed, so, The green willow’s Threaded fronds are spun together, yet It useless seems… |
20
‘“Sewn but not halted”—it really does seem so.’
