Left (Win)
すみよしのまつにとはばやおいがよにこよひばかりの月はみきやと
| sumiyoshi no matsu ni towaba ya oi ga yo ni koyoi bakari no tsuki wa miki ya to | To Sumiyoshi’s Pines I would ask, Through all the ancient ages of your lives, Is tonight, simply, The finest moon you’ve seen? |
Kyō, in service to the Regent’s Household[i]
29
Right
すみよしのうらさえわたる月みればまつのこかげぞくもりなりける
| sumiyoshi no ura saewataru tsuki mireba matsu no kokage zo kumori narikeru | When across Sumiyoshi’s Bay, so chill crossing The moon I see, The shadows from the pines are The only clouds. |
Lord Minamoto no Suehiro
Junior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade
Without Office[ii]
30
While the Left’s poem has no remarkable elements, I must say that the configuration of ‘tonight, simply’ is pleasant. As for the Right’s poem, in addition to it being quite commonplace, when composing about the brightness of the moon, to say that something is the only cloud, if you say that ‘the shadows from the pines are / The only clouds’ it certainly sounds as if that’s what they are at the very least [and thus imply that Sumiyoshi is cloudy, when the topic is the brightness of the moon], so I make the Left the winner.
[i] Sessho no ie no Kyō摂政家卿
[ii] San’i jūgoijō Minamoto ason Suehiro 散位従五位上源朝臣季広
Round Twelve
Left (Tie)
すみのぼる月のひかりにみがかれてくもりも見えずたまつしまひめ
| suminoboru tsuki no hikari ni migakurete kumori mo miezu tamatsu shimahime | Climbing clearly The moon’s light Polishes, so that No clouds appear above The divine Princess of Tamatsu Isle! |
Lord Fujiwara no Suetsune
Assistant Master of the Empress Household Office
Exalted Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade[1]
23
Right
すみよしのまつのこずゑにいる月はしづえのひまぞなほまたれける
| sumiyoshi no matsu no kozue ni iru tsuki wa shizue no hima zo nao matarekeru | At Sumiyoshi Into the treetops of the pines Has sunk the moon— The gaps ‘tween the lower boughs Will ever be awaited! |
Lord Fujiwara no Takanobu
Supernumerary Director of the Bureau of Horses, Right Division
Exalted Junior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade[2]
24
The conception of the Left’s poem of the moon’s light polishing Tamatsu Isle appears charming, but it would have been preferable to stop with ‘No clouds appear above / Tamatsu Isle’. Even though the poem wishes to say that ‘no clouds appear above’ her, the final use of ‘princess’ is a bit critical [for a poem mentioning a deity], isn’t it? As for the Right’s poem, while it does seem to have been composed with some attempt at conception, saying ‘Into the treetops of the pines / Has sunk the moon’ makes it sound as if the light can sink there, but this is what happens at the mountains’ edge, I feel. Thus, here we do have a reference to the moon over this particular shrine, while the Left is based on a reference to the Deity of Tamatsu Isle, and as both of these places are splendid, I hesitate to award a win or a loss and thus, once more, the round ties.
[1] Shōyon’ige-gyō chūgū no suke Fujiwara ason Suetsune正四位下行中宮亮藤原朝臣季経
[2] Jūgoijō-gyō uma no gonkami Fujiwara ason Takanobu 従五位上行右馬権頭藤原朝臣隆信
