Tag Archives: kumoi

Kyōgoku no miyasudokoro uta’awase 03

Original

やへたてるみかさのやまのしらくもはみゆきさぶらふさくらなりけり

yae tateru
mikasa no yama no
shirakumo wa
miyuki saburau
sakura narikeri
Standing eightfold high above
Mikasa Mountain,
The clouds of white,
In service to the excursion
Are cherries.

7

Left (Win)

よそにてもきみしみつれば山ざくらこころやすくやいまはちるらむ

yoso nite mo
kimi shi mitsureba
yamazakura
kokoro yasuku ya
ima wa chiruramu
Seen from afar, and
Even by my Lady, do
The mountain cherries
Contentedly
Seem to scatter now?

8

Right

やへたてるくもゐに見えしさくらばなかへるたむけにけふやちるらん

yae tateru
kumoi ni mieshi
sakurabana
kaeru tamuke ni
kyō ya chiruran
Standing eightfold high
Among the clouds, I seemed to see
Cherry blossoms,
As a memento of our return
Seeming to scatter today.

9

Daikōtaigōgū no suke taira no tsunemori-ason ke uta’awase 25

Moon

Round One

Left (Tie)

月きよみながむる人の心さへ雲井にすめる秋の夜はかな

tsuki kiyomi
nagamuru hito no
kokoro sae
kumoi ni sumeru
aki no yowa kana
The moon, so pure, that
Gazing folk feel
Their very hearts
Clearly in the heavens
On an autumn midnight!

Lord Shige’ie
49

Right

のこるべきかきねの雪は先消えてほかはつもるとみゆる月かな

nokorubeki
kakine no yuki wa
mazu kiete
hoka wa tsumoru to
miyuru tsuki kana
It should be lingering
On my brushwood fence, but the snow
First vanishes, then
Piling up elsewhere
Appears moonlight!

Lord Yorimasa
50

The Left seems extremely commonplace, and simply ending ‘autumn midnight’ feels incomplete. As for the Right, what does it mean to say that ‘the snow upon my brushwood fence first vanishes’? Might it mean that because of the fence’s shadow, the moon’s light cannot be seen? It really sounds as if the poet has gone too far in his quest for unusual expressions. Then there’s ‘piling up elsewhere’ along with ‘autumn midnight’—neither of these sound superior, so it’s impossible to say which poem is.

Entō ōn’uta’awase 03

Round Three

Left (Win)

春の夜のあくる霞の立田山これや神代の衣なるらん

haru no yo no
akuru kasumi no
tatsutayama
kore ya kamiyo no
koromo naruran
At a spring night’s
Dawn the haze around
Tatsuta Mountain—
Is this how in the age of gods
Raiment might have been?

Supernumerary Major Counsellor Moto’ie
5

Right

朝霞雲居をかけて見わたせばいたりいたらぬ山の端もなし

asagasumi
kumoi o kakete
miwataseba
itari itaranu
yama no ha mo nashi
When, upon the morning haze
Draping from the clouds,
I turn my gaze, it
Spread out, and fails to reach,
Not a single mountain’s edge.

Nobunari, Senior Third Rank
6

Both Left and Right are difficult to tell apart, yet the Left’s ‘clothing of the Age of Gods’ would seem to be superior.

SKKS XVII: 1653

For the place where Nunohiki Falls was painted, on a screen in the Saishō Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings.

久方のあまつをとめが夏衣雲井にさらすぬのびきのたき

hisakata no
ama tsu otome ga
natsugoromo
kumoi ni sarasu
nunohiki no taki
Eternal
Heavenly maidens
Their summer garb
Rinsing among the clouds—
The cataract at Nunohiki

Lord Ari’ie

A kuzushiiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

SKS III: 106

Composed for the Palace Poetry Match in Kanna 2[1].

秋の夜の月に心のあくがれて雲井に物をおもふ比かな

aki no yo no
tuki ni kokoro no
akugarete
kumowi ni mono wo
omoFu koro kana
On an autumn night
The moon my heart
Draws forth, and
What lies beyond the clouds is
The object of my thoughts then!

Former Emperor Kazan

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

[1] The headnote here is erroneous, as the text of this contest records it as taking place in Kanna 1 [985].

KYS I: 50

Composed at the Poetry Match held at the Residence of the Uji Former Grand Minister.

山ざくらさきそめしより久かたの雲井にみゆるたきのしらいと

yamazakura
sakisomeshi yori
hisakata no
kumoi ni miyuru
taki no shira’ito
Since the mountain cherries
Have begun to bloom,
The eternal
Clouds seem
Threaded with a waterfall of white.

Lord Minamoto no Toshiyori

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

SZS I: 56

As a poem on blossom, when he presented a hundred poem sequence to Former Emperor Sutoku.

かづらきやたかまの山のさくら花雲井のよそにみてや過ぎなん

kaduragi ya
takama no yama no
sakurabana
kumowi no yoso ni
mite ya suginan
In Kazuragi
On the peak of Takama are
Cherry blossoms:
Being beyond the clouds
Should I overlook them?

Master of the Left Capital Office Akisuke

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.