Tag Archives: mountain cherries

Reikeiden no nyōgo uta’awase 07

Cherry Blossom

Left (Win)

さきさかずよそにてもみむやまざくらみねのしらくもたちなかくしそ

saki sakazu
yoso nite mo mimu
yamazakura
mine no shirakumo
tachi na kakushi so
Whether they blossom, or blossom not
In the distance would I gaze
Upon the mountain cherries, so
O, clouds of white around the peaks,
Do not rise to conceal them!

13[i]

Right

しらくものたつかとみゆるさくらばなやまのまもなくちりやかふらん

shirakumo no
tatsu ka to miyuru
sakurabana
yama no ma mo naku
chiri ya kauran
‘Have clouds, so white,
Arisen?’ I wonder, beholding
Cherry blossom, but
Might the mountains, so swiftly,
With their scattering, change?

14


[i] This poem is included in Shūishū (I: 38), as an anonymous poem with the headnote ‘From a palace poetry match held in Tenryaku 9’. It is also included in Shūishō (I: 23) as an anonymous poem with the headnote ‘From a palace poetry match held on the 29th day of the Third Month, Tenryaku 9’.

KYS I: 50

Composed at the Poetry Match held at the Residence of the Uji Former Grand Minister.

山ざくらさきそめしより久かたの雲井にみゆるたきのしらいと

yamazakura
sakisomeshi yori
hisakata no
kumoi ni miyuru
taki no shira’ito
Since the mountain cherries
Have begun to bloom,
The eternal
Clouds seem
Threaded with a waterfall of white.

Lord Minamoto no Toshiyori

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.

Teiji-in uta’awase 05

Left (Win)

はるがすみたちしかくせばやまざくらひとしれずこそちりぬべらなれ

harugasumi
tachishi kakuseba
yamazakura
hito shirezu koso
chirinuberanare
If the spring haze
Has risen to conceal
The mountain cherries,
Then, indeed, will no one know
When they have seemed to scatter!

Tsurayuki
9

Right

たのまれぬはなのこころとおもへばやちらぬさきよりうぐひすのなく

tanomarenu
hana no kokoro to
omoeba ya
chiranu saki yori
uguisu no naku
Untrustworthy are
The blossoms’ hearts
I do think, so
While they are unscattered
Will the warbler sing.

Okikaze
10[i]

Both of these are the same—they tie.[ii]


[i] This poem is included in Shinshūishū (XI: 1549), attributed to Okikaze, with the headnote, ‘From Former Emperor Uda’s Poetry Contest’. It is also included twice in Kokin rokujō (I: 31) and (VI: 4395): in both cases the poem is attributed to Okikaze, but the first instance lacks a headnote, while the second is classified as a ‘Warbler’ poem. Finally, it is also included in Mandaishū (II: 254), again attributed to Okikaze, but this time with the headnote, ‘Topic unknown’.

[ii] Given that the Left’s poem here is marked as winning, presumably Uda means that both poems are equally worthy of a win—that is, that this is a yoki ji, a ‘tie of quality’.