On the fourteeth day of the Second Month, when Senior Assistant Lieutenant Okinagara no Mahito of the Senior Seventh Rank, Upper Grade, was sent to Kunishima as a gubernatorial messenger concerning the changing of the border guard in Hitachi province.
足柄の み坂給はり 返り見ず 我れは越え行く 荒し夫も 立しやはばかる 不破の関 越えて我は行く 馬の爪 筑紫の崎に 留まり居て 我れは斎はむ 諸々は 幸くと申す 帰り来までに
asigara no
misaka tamapari
kaperimizu
are pa kueyuku
arasi wo mo
tasi ya habakaru
puwa no seki
kuete wa pa yuku
muma no tume
tukusi no saki ni
timariwite
ware pa ipapamu
moromoro pa
sakeku to mawosu
kaperiku made |
In Ashigara,
Misaka will I pass through
Never looking back
Will I go on;
A rough man
Cannot pass
The barrier of Fuwa
But I will go on;
My horse’s hooves
At the point of Tsukushi
Will I halt, and
There take my ease;
To all of you:
I wish you well
Until I return again! |
Left.
巳に過ぎて午こそ物は悲しけれ戀や未の歩み成らむ
mi ni sugite
muma koso mono wa
kanashikere
koi ya hitsuji no
ayuminaramu |
More than I can bear, past the hour of the snake,
The hour of the horse is
All the more sad;
Love is like a sheep’s
Steps to the slaughter… |
Kenshō.
807
Right (Win).
命さへ身の終りにや成ぬらん今日暮すべき心地こそせぬ
inochi sae
mi no owari ni ya
narinuran
kyō kurasubeki
kokochi koso senu |
Has my very life
At the hour of snake, its end
Reached?
That I should live throughout this day,
Is something I cannot bear… |
Lord Takanobu.
808
The Right state: we cannot admire the Left’s poem. The Left state: in the Right’s poem ‘Has my very life at the hour of snake, its end’ (inochi sae mi no owari) sounds as if it is referring to two different matters.
In judgement: the Left’s poem simply says that after the hour of the snake comes the hour of the horse. It is unnecessary to say such things. The final line certainly seems to have nothing to do with anything. As for the fault of the Right’s poem, ‘life’ and ‘self’ have always had different meanings. Its first line, too, sounds elegant. Once more, the Right should win.
'Simply moving and elegant'