kuraiyama kodakaku naran matsu ni nomi yaoyorozuyo to harukaze zo fuku
On Mount Kurai[i] Tall will become the pines trees ‘Simply wait Eight million ages,’ whispers The gusting breeze of spring!
662
[i] Mount Kurai (kuraiyama 位山), lies in what is now northern Gifu prefecture, and is one of the peaks in the Hida Mountains (hida sanmyaku 飛騨山脈), also known as the Northern Alps, stretching through north central Honshu. Its use here, however, is purely because kurai 位, was homophonous with the word for ‘court rank’. As matsu 松 (‘pine tree’) was also homophonous with matsu 待つ (‘wait’), the poem is a dual play on words
yukusue mo kagiri wa shirazu sumiyoshi no matsu ni ikuyo no toshi ka henuran
Even the future’s Limits are unknown for Sumiyoshi’s Pines—how many ages and Years might they pass through?[i]
659
[i] See: Topic unknown. 我見てもひさしく成りぬ住の江の岸の姫松いくよへぬらむ ware mite mo / hisashiku narinu / suminoe no / kishi no himematsu / ikuyo henuramu ‘Even to my sight / Eternal are / Suminoe’s / Princess pines upon the shore: / How many ages have they passed through?’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XVII: 905)
Composed and sent to the residence of the Superintendent Abbot of Tsurugaoka[i] on a morning when snow had fallen.
つるの岡あふぎてみれば峰の松梢はるかに雪ぞつもれる
tsuru no oka ōgite mireba mine no matsu kozue haruka ni yuki zo tsumoreru
When to the Hill of Cranes I lift up my gaze, On the peaks beyond, pine Treetops in the distance Are covered with drifted snow.
623
[i] Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine (Tsurugaoka hachimangū 鶴岡八幡宮) is located in Yukinoshita in Kamakura and venerated Hachiman, the deity of war and warriors as the patron of the Minamoto clan. The shrine thus was, and still is, one of the focal points of the city and where many of its most important festivals are held. It was also the location of Sanetomo’s assassination in 1219. The Superintendent Abbot (bettō sōzu 別当僧都) to whom Sanetomo sent this time was probably the shrine’s third, Teigyō 定暁 (dates unknown) (Higuchi 2016, 96).
kimi ga yo wa kami ni zo inoru suminoe no matsu no chitose o yuzure to omoeba
My Lord’s reign: To the gods I pray, that Suminoe’s Pines their thousand years Pass on—that is my hope…
Retired from the World 61a
きみがへむやちよのかずはあめにますとよをかひめの神やしるらん
kimi ga hemu yachiyo no kazu wa ame ni masu toyo’okahime no kami ya shiruran
That my Lord will endure The number of eight thousand ages— Residing in the heavens, The Goddess of the Eternal Hills, The deity, knows well, no doubt!
Retired from the World 61b
Right (Win)
君がよはつきじとぞおもふ春の日の御笠の山にささむかぎりは
kimi ga yo wa tsukiji to zo omou haru no hi no mikasa no yama ni sasamu kagiri wa
My Lord’s reign Will never fade, I feel! While in spring the sun Upon Mikasa Mountain Shines down…
Senior Assistant Minister Past Lecturer 62
Both Left and Right have neither strengths nor weakness in their diction and sense, but I feel that ‘While in spring the sun / Upon Mikasa Mountain / Shines down’ is a bit more dependable at present than ‘Suminoe’s / Pines their thousand years’.
It is certainly not the case that there are no dubious elements about the Left’s poem. As ‘eight thousand ages’ is a definite number, what is it that the Goddess of the Eternal Hills is expected to know? If this is something in the deity’s hands, then it should be, ‘does not even know the number’. I’m sure the Goddess herself would ask what she’s expected to know. The Right seems stronger.
[i] There are different poems by Eien this round in different versions of the text of the contest. As can be inferred from the judgements, Mototoshi saw the first poem and Toshiyori the second. This strongly suggests that Mototoshi’s judgements were circulated before the text of the contest was submitted to Toshiyori, and Eien revised his poem this round as a result (Kubota et al. 2018, 308).
