Tag Archives: my lord

Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 21

Round Nine

Left (M – Tie)

秋くれて千草の花は残らねど独うつろふ白菊のはな

aki kurete
chigusa no hana wa
nokoranedo
hitori utsurou
shiragiku no hana
Autumn sinks to twilight, and
Of a thousand blossoms
Not one lingers, save
Alone and fading
A white chrysanthemum bloom.

Lord Shigemoto
41

Right (T – Win)

かぎりなく君が千代経むしるしにや散残るらん宿のしらぎく

kagirinaku
kimi ga chiyo hemu
shirushi ni ya
chirinokoruran
yado no shiragiku
That endless through
A thousand ages will my Lord pass
A sign there is:
Not scattering and lingering
White chrysanthemums at his house!

Lord Tadataka
42

Toshiyori states: I don’t have much to point out about the poem on ‘autumn sinking to twilight’, except that it could have had ‘indeed, linger’ in place of ‘not one lingers, yet’ to lead to ‘alone and fading’. As for the second poem, there are no other examples of saying ‘chrysanthemums scatter’, yet I do wonder about how this sounds? Nevertheless, it has a conception of Felicitation and this makes it somehow superior.

Mototoshi states: the poems of Left and Right are of the same standard in both conception and diction, so it’s not possible to tell them apart. These, too, are of the same quality.

Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 15

Round Three

Left

万代の秋のかたみになす物はきみがよはひをのぶるしらぎく

yorozuyo no
aki no katami ni
nasu mono wa
kimi ga yowai o
noburu shiragiku
Of ten thousand ages’
Autumns a keepsake
I will make:
My Lord’s age
Extended by a white chrysanthemum!

Lord Akinaka
29

Right

今朝みればさながら霜をいただきて翁さびゆくしら菊の花

kesa mireba
sanagara shimo o
itadakite
okina sabiyuku
shiragiku no hana
When this morn I look
That’s how it is: with frost
Bestowed
A lonesome ancient seems
This white chrysanthemum bloom!

Lord Mototoshi
30

Toshiyori states: this first poem is strongly characterized by felicitation, and that’s about all the fault I can mention. As for the second poem, ‘a lonesome ancient seems’ is certainly an expression I don’t know. Still, if I think of examples from prior poems, ‘lone ancient’ could be interpreted as deriving from ‘dotaged ancient’, but then the conception seems different here, so this is most likely wrong. I can only give a decision once I am certain.

Mototoshi states: ‘Of ten thousand ages’ / Autumns a keepsake / Will make’ resembles Kanemori’s famous work,[1] which has often been alluded to in composition, I think. This poem is charming. ‘Will make’ is an extremely abbreviated expression, and so the final ‘age / Extended by a white chrysanthemum’ appears to have little connection to it. There is Tomonori’ s ‘Dew-dappled / Let us pluck and wear’[2], and also responses sent on the 9th day of the Ninth Month to the residences of Tadamine and Tsurayuki like ‘Bearing droplets / Age is extended by / Chrysanthemums’, aren’t there. Given that’s the case there would be many such keepsakes of extended age. As for the Right’s ‘That’s how it is: with frost / Bestowed / A lonesome ancient seems, well, it seems that just how I composed a poem about lingering chrysanthemums—have I done something wrong?


[1] SIS III: 214

[2] KKS V: 270

Kyōgoku no miyasudokoro uta’awase 15

Original

こまなべてきみがみにくるかすがのはまつかさしげしあめにさはるな

koma nabete
kimi ga mi ni kuru
kasugano wa
matsukasa shigeshi
ame ni sawaru na
Mounts aligned,
My Lord has come to see
Kasuga Plain, where
The plentiful pinecones mean
He’ll be untroubled by rain!

43

Left (Win)

ぬれつつもあめにはゆかむまつかさのちとせのはるをもらさざらなむ

nuretsutsu mo
ame ni wa yukamu
matsukasa no
chitose no haru o
morasazaranamu
Even dampened
By the rain, let us go!
For the pinecones
Over a thousand years of springtimes
Will surely not allow a single drip!

44[1]

Right

かすがののまつかさだにもなかりせばあめふるさとにわれこましやは

kasugano no
matsukasa dani mo
nakariseba
ame furu sato ni
ware komashi ya wa
If on Kasuga Plain
Even pinecones
Were there not, then,
To the rainswept ancient capital
Why would I come at all?

45


[1] This poem is included in Ise-shū (107) with the headnote ‘From the time of the Kasuga Poetry Match’, implying that this is Ise’s work, even if she is not identified as the poet in the text here.