A sacred poem.
銀のめぬきのたちをさげはきてならの宮こをねるやたがこぞ
| sirogane no menuki no tati wo sageFakite nara no miyako wo neru ya ta ga ko zo | With a silver Hilted sword A’dangling from his belt, and Through the Nara capital Processing, who might that lad be? |
Anonymous
Tag Archives: Nara
Eien narabō uta’awase 25
Round Four
Left
水のおももみなふるゆきにうづもれてたちゐやなげくいけのにほどり
| mizu no omo mo mina furu yuki ni uzumorete tachi’i ya nageku ike no niodori | The surface of the water Entirely by the falling snow Is buried— Do they sorrow for their diving, The grebes around the pond? |
Cell of the Fragrant Elephant
49
Right (Win)
みよしのに雪ふりぬれば我がやどのならのかれ葉はいとどさびしも
| miyoshino ni yuki furinureba wa ga yado no nara no kareba wa itodo sabishi mo | In fair Yoshino Snow has fallen, so At my house The withered oak leaves are All the more alone… |
Cell of the Everlasting Truth
50
The poem of the Left’s ‘surface of the water entirely buried by snow’ is something that I have never heard before. ‘Grieving grebes’, too, are something I have yet to encounter. Really, what sort of poem is this? As for the poem of the Right, while ‘all the more alone’ and what precedes it fails to sound elegant, at the current time I feel it’s a little bit superior.
It’s extremely difficult to conceive of the surface of a body of what which hasn’t yet frozen being buried in snow. If snow fell extremely heavily, then, surely, the water would overflow, then freeze, and then get buried, wouldn’t it? I might be going a little too far here, though. As for the Right’s poem, is ‘my house’ in Yoshino? Or is it on an estate elsewhere? If it’s on an estate, is the poet looking at the falling snow and imagining Yoshino? It’s vague. Then again, as the poem doesn’t say explicitly that the oaks are buried by the snow, is it only imagining this? How might something be which has not been seen for sure? The oaks here, too, would be like that, as snow is something which doesn’t distinguish where it falls…
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 12
Round Twelve
Left (T – Win)
柞原紅ふかく染めてけり時雨の雨はいろなけれども
| hahasowara kurenai fukaku sometekeri shigure no ame wa iro nakeredomo | The oak groves Deeply scarlet Have been dyed, Though the rain shower Lacks any hue at all… |
Lord Shigemoto
23
Right (M – Win)
山里はならのから葉の散敷きてしぐれの音もはげしかりけり
| yamazato wa nara no karaba no chirishikite shigure no oto mo hageshikarikeri | My mountain retreat has The oaks’ withered leaves Scattered and spread around, so The sound of showers is all The more severe. |
Lord Tamezane
24
Toshiyori states: the ‘oak grove’ poem, saying that plants fade and autumn leaves are dyed by things like dew and frost is as unremarkable as saying that one’s sweetheart’s skirt trails down. The ‘mountain retreat’ poem has ‘the oaks’ withered leaves’ and this is problematic. It would certainly have been better to avoid using ‘withered leaves’. In addition, I wonder about saying ‘the sound of showers is severe’? I feel it would be better to use this when looking down on the stony valley gate from the high peak of Mount Arachi. The first poem is slightly superior.
Mototoshi states; the poems of Left and Right are about the same quality, but the Left’s poem lacks a conception of showers and is entirely a poem on scarlet leaves, so in the current context ‘oaks’ withered leaves’ is slightly superior.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 05
Round Five
Left (T – Tie)
時雨には菅の小笠も水もりて遠の旅人ぬれやしぬらん
| shigure ni wa suga no ogasa mo mizu morite ochi no tabibito nure ya shinuran | In such a shower A little hat of woven sedge, too, Drips with water; A distant traveller Is drenched, no doubt… |
Lady Kazusa
9
Right (M – Win)
霜さえて枯行くをのの岡べなるならの朽葉にしぐれ降るなり
| shimo saete kareyuku ono no okabe naru nara no kuchiba ni shigure furu nari | Chill the frost upon The sere meadows on The hillside where Upon the withered oak leaves A shower is falling. |
Lord Mototoshi
10
Toshiyori states: In the first poem, ‘drips with water’ is vague. In the second poem, ‘hillside where’ lacks smoothness. What are we to make of ‘withered oak leaves’? If leaves have withered away, then they wouldn’t make any sound, would they. Is this even possible?
Mototoshi states: the diction of ‘In such a shower / A little umbrella of woven sedge, too, / Drips with water’ is something which lacks any prior precedent. ‘Dripping with water’ give the impression of a painted pot with a crack in it, so what kind of shower can this be? It would be more normal to refer to having to shelter beneath one’s sleeves. While it is lacking in any superlative features, I feel that the sound of a shower on withered oak leaves is somewhat more commonplace.
Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 03
Round Three
Left (T – Win)
時雨には色ならぬ身の袖笠もぬるればかをる物にぞ有りける
| shigure ni wa iro naranu mi no sodegasa mo nurureba kaoru mono ni zo arikeru | When, amidst a shower My colourless Umbrella of sleeves Is soaked, something scented Does it become! |
Lady Shōshō
5
Right (M – Win)
冬くれば散りしく庭のならの葉に時雨音なふみ山べのさと
| fuyu kureba chirishiku niwa no nara no ha ni shigure oto nau miyamabe no sato | When the winter comes Scattered and spread across the grounds Are oak leaves, Sounding among the showers On this deep mountain estate… |
Lord Masakane
6
Toshiyori states: the first poem has ‘my colourless’—does this mean that the garment the poet is wearing is white? Or that the speaker is lacking in passion? If the garment is white, then it’s difficult to say that it changes colours, while if one is lacking in passion, it’s also difficult to see the connection with an umbrella of sleeves being scented. In general, though, the poem’s style is lacking in fault. The second poem appears to have replicated all the faults of an earlier work. While one can certainly say ‘Oak leaves / Scattered and spread’, saying ‘Scattered and spread / Oak leaves’ gives one the feeling that something is out of sequence. This is a bit unreasonable, but because it’s difficult to avoid the faults of its earlier model, I still feel it should lose.
Mototoshi states: one really wants to know what sort of lack there is. The poem says ‘soaked, something scented’, but doesn’t reference an earlier work which, for example, mentions plum blossom. Still, I feel that ‘Sounding among the showers / On this deep mountain’ is conspicuously good.
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 46
Round Twenty-One
Left (Tie)
かきくもりたびねのいほにしぐれしてつゆけさまさるくさまくらかな
| kakikumori tabine no io ni shigureshite tsuyukesa masaru kusamakura kana | Clouds claw in above The hut where I doze upon my travels, and Showers fall— Dew-drenched, above all, is My grassy pillow! |
Lord Shigenori
91
Right
まばらなるいほよりもりてむらしぐれをりしくならのはにぞおとする
| mabara naru io yori morite murashigure orishiku nara no ha ni zo otosuru | Leaky is My hut, so dripping through come The cloudbursts; Plucked and spread the oak Leaves make such a sound! |
Lord Morikata
92
The Left sounds very straightforward. The Right appears heart-rendingly desolate, but I wonder if it isn’t a bit excessive to go so far as the poet reclining on spread oak leaves which are making a sound due to the shower dripping through the hut’s roof? Then again, the Left’s latter section appears to contain little feeling, so comparing the two poems’ together, they should tie, I feel.
Kinkai wakashū 320
Kinkai wakashū 105
SKS I: 29
Composed during the reign of former Emperor Ichijō, when His Majesty was presented with a gift of some eightfold cherry blossom from Nara and, being in attendance, he ordered her to composed a poem on this gift of blossom.
いにしへのならの宮このやへざくらけふここのへににほひぬるかな
| inishie no nara no miyako no yaezakura kyō kokonoe ni nioinuru kana | The ancient Capital of Nara had Eightfold cherry blossom, that Today within the ninefold palace Does shine! |
Ise no Taiyū
SCSS III: 192
A poem for a folding screen on the occasion of a Junior Consort’s entrance to the palace in Kangi 1.
風そよぐならのを川の夕ぐれはみそぎぞ夏のしるしなりける
| kaze soyogu nara no ogawa no yūgure wa misogi zo natsu no shirushi narikeru | Whispers on the wind Through the oaks at Nara stream Of an evening: Lustrations, alone, of summer Are the sign.[i] |
Ietaka, Senior Third Rank
[i] An allusive variation on SKKS XV: 1376.