My reply:
ぬししれと引きける駒の雪を分けばかしこき跡にかへれとぞ思ふ
| nushi shire to hikikeru koma no yuki o wakeba kashikoki ato ni kaere to zo omou | ‘Know your master!’ Following such a mount Forged through the snow did you, then In his fine footsteps Returned home, I feel! |
387
I wrote this myself and sent it with Naitō Tomochika, Secretary of the Bureau of Horses, having selected him as a trustworthy individual.
On a snowy day in the Second Month of Kenryaku 2 [March 1212], Senior Assistant Minister of Public Affairs Yukimitsu came to call at my house, saying he wanted to take a look at the scenery from a mountain retreat; many others were there, including Yukimura, Secretary of Yamajiro and we enjoyed ourselves late into the night with music and poetry. When it was time for him to return, I gifted Yukimitsu with a black horse and when I saw him the following day, I found a piece of paper tied to the horse’s mane, which read
この雪を分けて心の君にあればぬししる駒のためしをぞひく
| kono yuki o wakete kokoro no kimi ni areba nushi shiru koma no tameshi o zo hiku | Through this snow To forge, the heart Had one, then A mount who knows his master well Is an example to follow! |
386
Original
こまなべてきみがみにくるかすがのはまつかさしげしあめにさはるな
| koma nabete kimi ga mi ni kuru kasugano wa matsukasa shigeshi ame ni sawaru na | Mounts aligned, My Lord has come to see Kasuga Plain, where The plentiful pinecones mean He’ll be untroubled by rain! |
43
Left (Win)
ぬれつつもあめにはゆかむまつかさのちとせのはるをもらさざらなむ
| nuretsutsu mo ame ni wa yukamu matsukasa no chitose no haru o morasazaranamu | Even dampened By the rain, let us go! For the pinecones Over a thousand years of springtimes Will surely not allow a single drip! |
44[1]
Right
かすがののまつかさだにもなかりせばあめふるさとにわれこましやは
| kasugano no matsukasa dani mo nakariseba ame furu sato ni ware komashi ya wa | If on Kasuga Plain Even pinecones Were there not, then, To the rainswept ancient capital Why would I come at all? |
45
[1] This poem is included in Ise-shū (107) with the headnote ‘From the time of the Kasuga Poetry Match’, implying that this is Ise’s work, even if she is not identified as the poet in the text here.
Left
駒なべてめも春の野にまじりなむ若菜摘みつる人は有りやと
| koma nabete me mo haru no no ni majirinamu wakana tsumitsuru hito wa ari ya to | Mounts all over The springtime meadows before my eyes Are mixed; A’plucking of fresh herbs, Are there folk there, I wonder? |
21[1]
Right
鶯の谷よりいづる声なくは春くることを誰かつげまし
| uguisu no tani yori izuru koe naku wa haru kuru koto o tare ka tsugemashi | If the bush-warbler From the valleys Did not sing his song, That spring is coming Would anyone announce it at all? |
22[2]
[1] Shisen manyōshū 13; Kokin rokujō II: 1137, ‘Springtime meadows’
[2] A minor variant of this poem occurs in Kokinshū (I: 14), attributed to Ōe no Chisato: 鶯の谷よりいづる声なくは春来ることを誰かしらまし uguisu no / tani yori izuru / koe naku wa / haru kuru koto o / tare ka shiramashi ‘If the bush-warbler / From the valleys / Did not sing his song, / That spring is coming / Would anyone realise at all?’; also Shinsen man’yōshū 261.
Left (Win)
唐国の虎臥す野邊に入るよりもまどふ戀路の末ぞあやうき
| karakuni no tora fusu nobe ni iru yori mo madou koiji no sue zo ayauki |
In far Cathay are Meadows where tigers lie, But rather than entering there, The confusing paths of love Are, at the end, more dangerous… |
Lord Ari’ie
1063
Right
我宿は人もかれ野の淺茅原通ひし駒の跡もとゞめず
| wa ga yado wa hito mo kareno no asajiwara kayoishi koma no ato mo todomezu |
At my home Is only a withered field Of cogon grass; The mount who once did cross it Has left no lingering tracks… |
Ietaka
1064
The Gentlemen of the Right state: how can love be dangerous? The Gentlemen of the Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults to mention.
In judgement: saying that the ‘paths of love are, at the end’ (koiji no sue) dangerous is perfectly commonplace. ‘Is only a withered field of cogon grass’ (hito mo kareno no asajiwara) seems to simply have taken the poem ‘Sedge fields lie / Around the estate of Fushimi, / All long overgrown; / He who passed across them / Has left no tracks at all…’ and swapped in ‘mount who once did cross it’ (kayoishi koma). Changing a man into a mount is discomposing, indeed. Again, the Left should win.