When the autumn wind was blowing coldly, around the time his wife passed away.
思ひきや秋のよ風のさむけきにいもなきとこにひとりねむとは
| omoFiki ya aki no yokaze no samukeki ni imo naki toko ni Fitori nemu to Fa | How unexpected is The autumn night’s wind, So cold upon My bed where, without my darling I must sleep alone. |
Senior Assistant Governor General Kuni’akira
Original
ひとりぬるよをながづきのはなすすきそよともあきのかぜぞこたふる
| hitori nuru yo o nagazuki no hanasusuki soyo to mo aki no kaze zo kotauru | Sleeping alone, How long the night in the Longest Month: The blossoming silver grass Whispers, ‘So it is,’ with the autumn Wind replying! |
45
Left
こたふともたのまざらなむはなすすきふくあきかぜのさだめなければ
| kotau tomo tanomazaranamu hanasusuki fuku akikaze no sadame nakereba | It may reply, but I would not have you trust, for The blossoming silver grass Blowing in the autumn wind is Fickle, indeed… |
46
Right
そよとだにしりてこたふるかぜしあらばなにかながきよおもひわぶらん
| soyo to dani shirite kotauru kaze shi araba nanika nagaki yo omoiwaburan | If, ‘So it is,’ You know and reply, O, wind, then Why, all the long night through Do my thoughts torment me so? |
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After a certain lady had set off up to the capital, I composed these and, attaching them to a letter, had it sent to her.
夜をさむみひとりね覚の床さえてわが衣手に霜ぞ置きける
| yo o samumi hitori nezame no toko saete wa ga koromode ni shimo zo okikeru | Chill the night, so On waking alone My bed is frozen, and On my sleeves Frost has fallen, indeed![i] |
597
[i] See: Topic unknown. 夜をさむみねざめてきけばをしぞなく払ひもあへず霜やおくらん yo o samumi / nezamete kikeba / oshi zo naku / harai mo aezu / shimo ya okuran ‘Chill the night and / On waking, I hear / A mandarin drake a’crying / For he cannot brush away / The fallen frost, it seems.’ Anonymous (Gosenshū VIII: 478)
Original
さほやまのははそのもみぢちりぬべみよるさへみよとてらすつきかげ
| saoyama no hahaso no momiji chirinubemi yoru sae miyo to terasu tsukikage | Upon Sao Mountain The oaks’ autumn leaves Must have scattered, for Even at night behold! The shining moonlight… |
12
Left (Win)
ひさかたのつきなかりせばさほやまのもみぢはよるのにしきならまし
| hisakata no tsuki nakariseba saoyama no momiji wa yoru no nishiki naramashi | Were the eternal Moon to cease to be, then Sao Mountain’s Autumn leaves for night’s Brocade would I wish! |
13
Right
つきかげのさやけくみゆるさほやまのもみぢをかぜにまかせずもがな
| tsukikage no sayakeku miyuru saoyama no momiji o kaze ni makasezu mogana | In the moonlight, So clear, I see Sao Mountain’s Autumn leaves—to the wind I would entrust them not! |
14
Dark shade beneath the mountain trees[i]
Left
よとともにはれずもあるかなこがくれて山びといかであくとしるらん
| yo to tomo ni harezu mo aru kana kogakurete yamabito ikade aku to shiruran | Even with the end of night, It never clears at all! Hidden ‘neath the trees How can a mountain man Ever find the light? |
11
Right
よもの山こぐらくなりてなつのよの月ばかりこそもりてみゆらめ
| yomo no yama koguraku narite natsu no yo no tsuki bakari koso morite miyurame | All around, the mountains Are dark beneath the trees; On a summer night ‘Tis truly only the moon That one might see dripping between them! |
12
This topic refers to a hunted stag concealed among the trees in the summer mountains. There is not a particular strong feeling of either evergreen or other types of mountain forests,[ii] but the Left’s poem has ‘Even with the end of night’, forgetting that this implies a season of biting wind and showers striking the leaves on the trees—thus the darkness here is excessively conceived. While the Right takes ‘dark shade’ as an opportunity to compose with the elevated conception of the moon dripping between the trees—and surpasses the peaks in doing this—I wonder if the conceptions of both poems don’t contain brightness? Thus, both Left and Right are examples of the ‘Reizei Palace’,[iii] so I would decide on a tie for these.
| satsuki yama koguraki kage no shigeshisa wa masarite miyuru hito mo naki kana | The Fifth Month mountains Dark shade beneath the trees is So deep that Skillfully seeing— There no one who can do that! |
Judge 6
[i] Yamagi no kagegurashi山樹蔭暗
[ii] The expression Noritada uses here Tokiwayama makeyama is obscure, so this interpretation is speculative.
[iii] Another unclear expression, but from the context apparently an idiom that means ‘poems not matching the topic’.
Left
こひわぶるひとにあふよのしののめにはわかるといかでみぬよしもがな
| koi waburu hito ni au yo no shinonome ni wa wakaru to ikade minu yoshi mogana | Suffering with love’s fire, After a night with her At the edge of dawn Parting—somehow ‘Twould have been better to have seen her not! |
38
Right
なげきつつおもひにあかぬあかつきはこころもゆかぬわかれをぞする
| nagekitsutsu omoi ni akanu akatsuki wa kokoro mo yukanu wakare o zo suru | Ever grieving, and With my passion’s fire unslaked, At dawn, My heart unsatisfied With our parting! |
39
