From the poetry match at Tsurayuki’s house in Tengyō 2 – The beginning of autumn.
松もなくしげき木の葉は夏ながらもみぢの色ぞ染めはじめける
| matsu mo naku shigeki no ha wa natsu nagara momiji no iro zo somehajimekeru | Not waiting at all The leaves upon the trees, so lush In summer, have With scarlet hues Begun to be dyed! |
Anonymous
Round Thirty-Five
Left (Tie)
おのがすむ嶺の木がらし寒き夜は鹿も紅葉の衣きるらし
| ono ga sumu mine no kogarashi samuki yo wa shika mo momiji no koromo kirurashi | Where he dwells upon The peak, the bitter wind On a night so chill, for The stag, of scarlet leaves Does seem to make a robe. |
The Supernumerary Major Counsellor
69
Right
すみのぼる月にうらむる声すなりねられぬ鹿や夜寒なるらん
| suminoboru tsuki ni uramuru koesunari nerarenu shika ya yozamu naruran | Climbing clearly At the moon, in despair Does he cry— Sleepless, does the stag Feel night’s chill, perhaps? |
Nobunari
70
The Left’s poem has ‘the stag, of scarlet leaves does seem to make a robe’ which sounds charming, and the Right’s poem has ‘sleepless, does the stag feel night’s chill, perhaps’, which appears refined. Thus, they tie.
Composed when he had gone to the residence of Narisuke, the Chief Priest of Kamo, when drunk, was sorrowing that he had yet to be promoted.
もみぢするかつらのなかにすみよしのまつのみひとりみどりなるかな
| momidisuru katura no naka ni sumiyosi no matu no mi Fitori midori naru kana | Among the scarlet-leaved Katsura, Sumiyoshi’s Solitary pinecone Is green! |
Kunimoto, the Governor of Tsu
Showers at one’s lodgings on a journey
Round One
Left
しぐれするもみぢのにしきゆかしきにあけてをたたむふたむらのやま
| shiguresuru momiji no nishiki yukashiki ni akete o tatamu futamura no yama | Under the showers The scarlet leaves’ brocade I long to see, so With the dawn let’s set forth To Mount Futamura! |
Jakunen
51
Right (Win)
みやこにもおもひやすらむくさまくらうちしぐれたるよはのねざめを
| miyako ni mo omoiyasuramu kusamakura uchishiguretaru yowa no nezame o | Even in the capital Might you think of me? On a grassy pillow With a shower Awoken at midnight… |
Suke
52
The Left poem’s ‘With the dawn let’s set forth / To Mount Futamura’ sounds charming, but as we can see from Lord Kanesuke’s poem ‘Futami Bay / Let’s see with the dawn’, it is quite pedestrian. Then there is the expression ‘long to see’—this really isn’t appropriate diction for poetry. I will admit that it appears from time to time in imperial anthologies, and so it is certainly permissible depending upon the style of the poem, though. There’s also the term ‘long to know’—one really shouldn’t use diction in a poetry match which doesn’t express the poet’s true feelings. As for the Right’s poem, it’s also quite pedestrian to say that showers fall on one’s way on a journey, but don’t necessarily fall in the capital, but saying that folk there might think of you waking on your journey, well, why wouldn’t they do that? The conception of the poem is pleasant, and I make it the winner.
