au koto no kata no katami wa namidagawa koishi to omoeba mazu saki ni tatsu
Meeting her was Hard, so my only keepsake is A river of tears; When I recall my love for her, That is first to flow.
63
[i] What Ise means here is that these poems had been prepared for the event, but were not formally recited and judged during the contest as it had to be truncated due to lack of time.
[1]Shinsen man’yōshū 1/Kokin rokujō I: 460/A minor variant of this poem also occurs in Shinkokinshū (I: 65), where it is attributed to Ise: 水のおもにあやおりみだる春雨や山のみどりをなべてそむらん mizu no omo ni / aya orimidaru / harusame ya / yama no midori o / nabete somuran ‘Upon the water’s surface / A confusing pattern paints / The rain of spring— / Will it now the mountains / All dye with green, I wonder?’
Composed on the conception of changing into summer clothes, when a Hundred Poem Sequence was presented to His Majesty, Emperor Horikawa. 夏ごろもはなのたもとにぬぎかへて春のかたみもとまらざりけり
natsugoromo hana no tamoto ni nugikaete haru no katami mo tomarazarikeri
For summer garb Blossom-laden sleeves I remove, and with the change Those keepsakes of springtime Fail to linger on.
The Gentlemen of the Right state: the initial line of the Left’s poem sounds poor. The sense of the ending, too, is difficult to grasp. The Gentlemen of the Left state: we wonder about the appropriateness of changing oneself into a bed.
In judgement: both Left and Right refer to ‘a boar lounging in his bed’ (fusu i no toko), and it has been mentioned that the initial line of the Left’s poem sounds poor, and that its ending is difficult to grasp. There really are a number of unacceptable aspects to this poem, are there not, so I cannot add any further words to what has been said. The Right’s poem is not suggesting that one change oneself into a bed. It is saying that one should briefly become a boar, that one might dream briefly of love. How can one possibly see the dream of a boar lying asleep? It certainly seems inferior to ‘not envying a lounging boar’.