Temples 寺
有為の世はけふかあすかのかねの音をあはれいつまできかんとすらん
ui no yo wa kyō ka asu ka no kane no oto o aware itsu made kikan to suran | In this mundane world Today and tomorrow, too, The bell tolls on – How long will its melancholy I continue to hear? |
Kanemasa
Left
けふも猶雪はふりつつ春霞たてるやいづこ若菜つみてむ
kyō mo nao yuki wa furitsutsu harugasumi tateru ya izuko wakana tsumitemu |
Still yet, today Is the snow falling; O, spring haze Where do you arise? For I would go and pluck fresh herbs! |
3
In no hyakushu, shodo, Eighth Month Shōji 2 [September 1200]
Right
朝氷たがため分て此川のむかへの野べに若菜つむらん
asagōri ta ga tame wakete kono kawa no mukae no nobe ni wakana tsumuran |
This film of morning ice: For who’s sake do I break it? On this river’s Yonder side within the fields Would I pluck fresh herbs… |
4
Naidaijinke hyakushu, Ninth Month Kenpō 3 [October 1215]
The wind across the fields (野風)
Round One
Left
けさみればはぎをみなへしなびかしてやさしの野辺の風のけしきや
kesa mireba hagi ominaeshi nabikashite yasashi no nobe no kaze no keshiki ya | This morn when I look out Are the bush clovers and maidenflowers Waving Gently in the fields A vision of wind? |
Lord Toshiyori
15
Right (Win)
高円の野路の篠原末騒ぎそそや秋風今日吹きぬなり
takamado no noji no shinohara sue sawagi sosoya akikaze kyō fukinu nari | In Takamado, At Shinohara in Noji, Noisy in the treetops Rustles the autumn wind As it blows today. |
Lord Mototoshi
16
In the Left’s poem, from the phrase ‘bush clovers and maidenflowers’ (hagi ominaeshi) and to the following ‘gently in the fields’ (yashi no nobe) seem singularly unremarkable. In fact, the diction seems so out of place as to be comic. The Right’s poem has an elevated style and charming diction, so one would think it should win, should it not?
The Gentlemen of the Left: the Right’s poem does use the comically forceful diction ‘rustles’ (sosoya).
In judgement: the Left’s ‘waving’ (nabikashite) is an expression giving the poem an extremely idiosyncratic style. The initial section also appears to be lacking in force. As for the Right’s poem, ‘rustles’ (sosoya) is used by Sone no Yoshitada in his poem ‘rustling, the autumn wind has blown’ (sosoya akikaze fukinu nari),[1] so it is not as if there is not a prior example of usage. Thus, it seems to me that the Right’s poem is superior.
[1]The judge, Fujiwara no Mototoshi, is mistaken here, as the poem he is remembering is by Ōe no Yoshitoki 大江嘉言 and can be found in Shikashū (III: 108). Yoshitada is the author of SKS III: 110, however, so it seems he has simply made a mistaken identification of authorship over two poems which are more or less adjacent to each other in that anthology.
Composed on the topic of monkeys howling from the mountain passes on a day when the Cloistered Emperor had gone to the Western River.
わびしらにましらな鳴きそ足引きの山のかひある今日にやはあらぬ
wabisira ni masira na naki so asiFiki no yama no kaFi aru keFu ni ya wa aranu |
So sadly, O Monkeys, howl not! Leg-wearying The mountain valleys are, yet Today, there is no point! |
Mitsune
Left (Win).
戀詫びて我と眺めし夕暮も馴るれば人の形見がほなる
koiwabite ware to nagameshi yūgure mo narureba hito no katamigao naru |
Suffering with love I have gazed Upon the evening dark, So used to it that it Has become your keepsake! |
Lord Sada’ie.
827
Right.
明ぼののあはればかりは忍ぶれど今日をば出でず春の夕暮
akebono no aware bakari wa shinoburedo kyō oba idezu haru no yūgure |
The dawn’s Sadness, I do just Bear, but, oh, Today, it will never come – The evening in springtime! |
Nobusada.
828
The Right state: when one understands the purport of the Left’s poem, it comes as a revelation. The Left state: in the Right’s poem we are unable to grasp the sense of ‘it will never come’ (idezu). In addition, the conception of Love seems lacking.
In judgement: both poems ‘evenings’ are support by little diction, yet the conception of Love is profound, indeed, such that my own shallow knowledge finds it difficult to grasp. However, the Right’s ‘Today, it will never come’ (kyō oba idezu) certainly does seem difficult to comprehend. I would have to say that the Left’s ‘So used to it that it’ (narureba hito no) is marginally superior.