Composed after I had had various people compose on the autumn oak leaves on Mount Sao in a shower.
さほやまのははそのもみぢちぢの色にうつろふ秋は時雨ふりにけり
| saoyama no hahaso no momiji chiji no iro ni ustsurou aki wa shigure furinikeri | Upon Mount Sao The oaks’ autumn leaves are A multitude of hues Shifting in the autumn, for The showers fall. |
Round Eleven
Left
おぼつかないづれうらごの山ならんみなくれなゐにみゆる紅葉ば
| obotsukana izure urago no yama naran mina kurenai ni miyuru momijiba | How strange it is— Where is Urago Mountain, I wonder? When all the same scarlet Seem the autumn leaves… |
Kiyosuke
93
Right (Win)
大ゐ河きしのもみぢのちるをりは浪にたたするにしきとぞみる
| ōigawa kishi no momiji no chiru ori wa nami ni tatasuru nishiki to zo miru | At the River Ōi, When the scarlet leaves upon the bank Come to fall, Cut out by the waves, Does their brocade appear! |
Mikawa
94
When I listen to the Left I wonder what on earth it’s actually about—the end seems redolent of love. The Right doesn’t seem to have any particular faults, so it should win.
Round Ten
Left (Win)
一たびは風にちりにし紅葉ばをとなせの滝の猶おとすかな
| hitotabi wa kaze ni chirinishi momijiba o tonase no taki no nao otosu kana | Once Scattered by the wind Scarlet leaves Down the cateract at Tonase Fall once more! |
Arifusa
91
Right
色ふかき紅葉うつらぬ所こそ立田の川のあさせなりけれ
| iro fukaki momiji utsuranu tokoro koso tatsuta no kawa no asase narikere | Deep the hues of Scarlet leaves, reflected not In this place above all: The River Tatsuta’s Shallow rapids. |
Lay Priest Sanekiyo
92
The Left appears charming, but might have been slightly improved had it been composed about pleasure boating on the Ōi. As for the Right, it is erroneous to specify the shallow rapids as a place where scarlet leave are not reflected. Taken as a whole it is inferior.
Round Nine
Left (Tie)
秋ごとに葉もりの神のつらきかな紅葉を風にまかすとおもへば
| aki goto ni hamori no kami no tsuraki kana momiji o kaze ni makasu to omoeba | Every single autumn, The guardian deity of the leaves is Cruel, indeed! The scarlet leaves to the wind He does abandon, I feel… |
Narinaka
89
Right
くれなゐに梢の色のかはるより風の音さへあらずなるかな
| kurenai ni kozue no iro no kawaru yori kaze no oto sae arazunaru kana | Since to scarlet The treetops hues Have changed, Even the sound of the wind is Not as it was! |
Tōren
90
The Left depicts things just as they are. If the Right has the same conception as the Cathay-style poem on the wind lessening every morning at Shanglin Park,[1] then it’s that one feels that after the leaves have turned, they’ll scatter, yet one has to think that, later, in summer the treetops will grow lush again, and the sounds do not resemble each other; neither of these are faults and so the round ties.
[1] Wakan rōeishū 312
Round Seven
Left (Tie)
色色にそむる紅葉に立田姫心のほどのみえもするかな
| iroiro ni somuru momiji ni tatsutahime kokoro no hodo no mie mo suru kana | In the multitude of shades Dyeing the scarlet leaves, Princess Tatsuta’s Deep thought and care Can be seen! |
Sadanaga
85
Right
いろいろにとり染めてけり立田姫はしむらごなる衣手の杜
| iroiro ni torisometekeri tatsutahime hashi muragonaru koromode no mori | In a multitude of shades Has her dye taken; Princess Tatsuta stains The edges dark and light of The sacred grove at Koromode. |
Lord Suetsune
86
The Left has nothing remarkable about it, and its ending is old-fashioned, I think. The Right, too, seems to be in the eccentric style, and so it’s impossible for me to say anything else about either of them.
Round Six
Left (Win)
山姫はもみぢのにしきおりてけりたちなやつしそ嶺の朝霧
| yamahime wa momiji no nishiki oritekeri tachi na yatsushi so mine no asagiri | The mountain’s princess, Of scarlet leaves brocade Has woven; In your rising don’t despoil it, O, morning mists upon the peak! |
Lord Kinshige
83
Right
しぐれには紅葉の色ぞまさりける又かきくもる空はいとはじ
| shigure ni wa momiji no iro zo masarikeri mata kakikumoru sora wa itowaji | A shower makes The scarlet leaves’ hues Most fine; So, the swiftly clouding Sky I could not dislike. |
Lord Masahira
84
The Right sounds as if the poet has just come to the revelation that, even though a showery sky is charming, can one possibly dislike it, given that it improves the hues of the scarlet leaves. The Left isn’t bad, but it does have two identical sounds ending lines, and this has been called the same-sounding rhyme fault, I believe. With that being said, in the Tentoku Poetry Match, there were some poems with this feature which were criticized, and some which were not, so I wonder if this is not something to particularly worry about. In this poem it doesn’t sound like a defect and, taking this together with the fact that the Right’s poem is poor, the Left should win.
Round Five
Left
あさひ山みねの紅葉をみわたせばよもの木末に照りまさりけり
| asahiyama mine no momiji o miwataseba yomo no kozue ni terimasarikeri | When upon Asahi Mountain’s Peak of scarlet leaves I turn my gaze, All over, the treetops Shine most bright! |
Tamechika
81
Right (Win)
紅のやしほの色にめかれすなおなじはもりの神といへども
| kurenai no yashio no iro ni mekaresu na onaji hamori no kami to iedomo | From the scarlet, Deeply dyed, hues O, avert not your eyes! Though the same leaves’ guardian Deity you are called… |
Moromitsu
82
The Left has nothing particular to say and its expression is awkward. As for the Right, a number of learned men seem to have said that one does not compose about the guardian deity of the leaves in relation to trees in general, but about oak trees, yet a great many things have deities to protect them, so I wonder if the guardian deity of the leaves could be a deity for all types of tree—couldn’t it protect any of them? Thus, in this poem, too, couldn’t that be the case? While the concluding ‘though you are called’sounds overly direct, it appears it should win.
Round Three
Left
くれなゐのこぞめの色とみえつるや八しほの岡の紅葉なるらん
| kurenai no kozome no iro to mietsuru ya yashio no oka no momiji naruran | With scarlet Hues deeply dyed Do, perhaps, seem Yashio Hill’s Autumn leaves? |
Kenshō
77
Right (Win)
初時雨ふりにし里をきてみればみかきが原は紅葉しにけり
| hatsu shigure furinishi sato o kitemireba mikaki ga hara wa momijinishikeri | The first showers Have fallen on this ancient estate I have come to see: Mikaki Field has All turned to autumn hues. |
Suketaka
78
While the Left displays great technical skill in juxtaposing ‘deeply dyed with scarlet hues’ and ‘Yashio Hill’, the Right at present is conclusively composed with a somewhat more decorous configuration relaxed manner. In this it conveys emotion as poems of old did, and so I believe it should certainly win.
Round Two
Left (Win)
秋霧のたえまにみゆる紅葉ばやたちのこしたる錦なるらん
| akigiri no taema ni miyuru momijiba ya tachinokoshitaru nishiki naruran | The autumn mists have Gaps revealing Scarlet leaves— Remaining offcuts of Brocade, perhaps? |
Lord Tsunemori
75
Right
もみぢちる立田の山はえぞこえぬ錦をふまむ道をしらねば
| momiji chiru tatsuta no yama wa e zo koenu nishiki o fumamu michi o shiraneba | Scattered with scarlet leaves Tatsuta Mountain I cannot cross, for To tread upon a brocade Path I know not how… |
Lord Yorimasa
76
The Right is a poem on fallen leaves and blossom—something about which many people have composed in the recent past and modern times, too. The Left sounds as if it truly depicts things as they are. Its overall construction is lovely, too, so it should win.
