Tag Archives: kurenai

Daikōtaigōgū daijin kiyosuke-ason ke uta’awase 21

Round Twenty-One

Left (Win)

小倉山木木のもみぢのくれなゐはみねの嵐のおろすなりけり

ogurayama
kigi no momiji no
kurenai wa
mine no arashi no
orosu narikeri
On gloomy Mount Ogura
The leaves upon the trees,
So scarlet,
By the storm wind from the peak
Are tossed down.

Lord Kiyosuke
41

Right

ふかくあさきもみぢばながるあすか河ふちせは色にあらはれにけり

fukaku asaki
momijiba nagaru
asukagawa
fuchise wa iro ni
arawarenikeri
Across both depths and shallows
Flow the scarlet leaves
On the Asuka river,
Among the rapids and the pools
Have they appeared.

Shun’e
42

Neither of these is bad. The Right violates the five syllable pattern; the Left has no faults.

Entō ōn’uta’awase 5

Round 5

Left (Win)

朝日影まだ出でやらぬ足引の山はかすみの色ぞうつろふ

asahi kage
mada ideyaranu
ashihiki no
yama wa kasumi no
iro zo utsurou
The morning sunlight
Has yet to fall upon
The leg-wearying
Mountains, yet the haze’s
Hues are shifting.

Takasuke, Gentleman-in-Waiting
9

Right

山姫のかすみのそでも紅に光そへたる朝日影かな

yamahime no
kasumi no sode mo
kurenai ni
hikari soetaru
asahi kage kana
The mountain princess has
Her sleeves of haze turned
Scarlet
Draped with light by
The morning sunshine!

Shimotsuke
10

The Left’s poem has no faults worth pointing out; the poem of the Right’s ‘morning sunlight draping scarlet light across the sleeves of haze’ is overly gorgeous, I think, while the Left seems perfectly beautiful, so it should win.

Tsurayuki-shū 358

Poems composed for a folding screen for the Minister of the Right in Jōhei 7 [937]: Women gazing at the scarlet plum blossom they had picked beneath the trees.

雪とのみあやまたれつつ梅花くれなゐにさへかよひけるかな

yuki to nomi
aya mataretsutsu
mume no hana
kurenai ni sae
kayoikeru kana
For the snow alone,
O, have we ever waited, while
The plum blossom
Simply in scarlet
Has scattered back and forth.

Koresada shinnō-ke uta’awase 18

よもぎふに露のおきしくあきのよはひとりぬるみもそでぞぬれける

yomogyū ni
tsuyu no okishiku
aki no yo wa
hitori nuru mi mo
sode zo nurekeru
Upon the mugwort
The dew falls, scattered
On an autumn night;
Sleeping alone, my
Sleeves are drenched, indeed!

35

あしひきの山べによするしらなみはくれなゐふかくあきぞ見えける

ashihiki no
yamabe ni yosuru
shiranami wa
kurenai fukaku
aki zo miekeru
Upon the leg-wearying
Mountain meadows break
The whitecaps;
A deeper scarlet
Does autumn reveal.

36

Uhyōe shōjō sadafumi uta’awase 4

Scarlet lotus flowers floating on marsh water (緑沼紅蓮浮)

Left (Win)

みどりぬにうきたるはちすくれなゐにみづにごるなり波たつなゆめ

midorinu ni
ukitaru hatisu
kurenawi ni
midu nigorunari
nami tatu na yume
Upon the green marsh
Floats a lotus
Its scarlet
Stains the waters –
O, rise not, you waves!

6

Right

紅のはちすうきたるみどりぬにしら波たてばこきまぜの花

kurenawi no
Fatisu ukitaru
midorinu ni
siranami tateba
kokimaze no Fana
Scarlet,
The lotus floats upon
The green marsh, but
When the whitecaps rise
All jumbled will the flowers be…

7[1]


[1]These poems are included in Fubokushō (XXIV: 11386) and (XXIV: 11387).