Tag Archives: kure

SKKS VI: 693

Composed on the evening of the year.

へだて行くよよの面かげかきくらし雪にふりぬるとしの暮かな

hedateyuku
yo yo no omokage
kakikurashi
yuki ni furinuru
toshi no kure kana
Disappearing into the distance
Are the shapes of times gone by,
Darkness descending with
The falling snow—my age
At the evening of the year.

The Daughter of Master of the Dowager Empress Household Office Toshinari

Love IV: 20

Left (Win).
玉ほこの道行き人も心ありて來んと頼めよこの夕卜には

tamahoko no
michi yukibito mo
kokoro arite
kon to tanomeyo
kono yūke ni wa
Jewelled spear straight
The road for this traveller:
If he longs for me,
Let it say, ‘Come with me!’,
This evening’s fortune!

Lord Kanemune.
819

Right.
逢ことを頼むる暮と思せば入相の鐘も嬉しからまし

au koto o
tanomuru kure to
omoiseba
iriai no kane mo
ureshikaramashi
‘We will meet,
On that you can rely, at dusk,’
He made me think, so
The sunset bell, too,
Does seem full of joy!

The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.
820

The Right state: evening fortune-telling and crossroad divination are different things. The Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults.

In judgement: both evening fortune-telling and crossroad divination are conducted in the evening, and with either one could wish ‘Let it say, “Come with me!”’ (kon to tanomeyo), so this does not seem to be a mistake does it? The Right has the fault of having both ‘We will meet’ (au koto o) and ‘sunset bell, too’ (iriai no kane mo). The Left should win.

Love IV: 12

Left.
ひとり寢の袖の名殘の朝じめり日影に消えぬ露もありけり

hitorine no
sode no nagori no
asajimeri
hikage ni kienu
tsuyu mo arikeri
Sleeping solo
My sleeves remain
Damp in the morning;
The sunlight leaves untouched
The dewfall there.

A Servant Girl.
803

Right (Win).
道芝を分けて露けき袖ならば濡れても暮を待たまし物を

michishiba o
wakete tsuyukeki
sode naraba
nuretemo kure mo
matamashi mono o
If the roadside grasses,
Have brushed dewfall
On these sleeves,
May to dampen them again, ‘til evening
I would wish to wait…

Ietaka.
804

The Right state: we find no faults in the Left’s poem. The Left state: there is a very recent poem, ‘If he would be wet with waves should surely wait for evening?’.

In judgement: simply saying, ‘Sleeping solo my sleeves remain damp in the morning’ (hitorine no sode no nagori no asajimeri) seems to lack the conception of love. I wonder who might have written the ‘recent poem’, ‘If he would be wet with waves should surely wait for evening?’ mentioned by the Right? How, indeed, can we avoid poems which are not in the anthologies? In any case, the poem here is ‘May to dampen them again, ‘til evening I would wish to wait’ and the initial line is different. This level of resemblance between poems is not uncommon. The Right’s poem is pleasant. It should win.

tonasegawa

戸無瀬河岩間に立たむ筏師や浪に濡れても暮を待つらん

tonasegawa
iwama ni tatamu
ikadashi ya
nami ni nuretemo
kure o matsuran
At the river Tonase
Bursting from between the rocks
The raftsman
If he would be wet with waves
Should surely wait for evening?

Fujiwara no Toshinari
From ‘The Hundred Poem Sequence Composed at the House of the Minister of the Right’ (1172)