Tag Archives: kyō

Ietaka-kyō hyakuban jika’awase 2

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]

Kanpaku naidaijin uta’awase 15-16

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.

KKS XIX: 1067

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

Love IV: 24

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.