まだきにぞつみに来にけるはるばると今もえ出づるのべのさわらび
| madaki ni zo tsumi ni kinikeru harubaru to ima moe’izuru nobe no sawarabi | Already, indeed, Have I come to pick, After so long, Now busting into bud Fresh bracken from the fields. |
Kii 紀伊
Tag Archives: nobe
Horikawa hyakushu 141
Baishi naishinnō-ke uta’awase – kōshin 08
Round Eight
Fresh Bracken
Left
さわらびのもえいづる春の夕ぐれは霞のうへに煙立ちけり
| sawarabi no moe’izuru haru no yūgure wa kasumi no ue ni keburi tachikeri | Fresh bracken Budding on a spring Evening: Above the haze, Smoke a’rising. |
Koshikibu
15
Right
いつしかともえにけるかなさわらびの野辺はいかなるおもひなるらん
| itsu shika to moenikeru kana sawarabi no nobe wa ikanaru omoi naruran | So swiftly Has it budded! Fresh bracken In the meadows—what sort of Feelings might it bring? |
Shikibu
16
Kokiden nyōgo uta’awase – Chōkyū ni-nen 05
Round Five
Fresh bracken
Left
かりびとのとやまをこめてやきしよりしたもえいづるのべのさわらび
| karibito no toyama o komete yakishi yori shita moe’izuru nobe no sawarabi | Since hunters All the nearby mountains Have burned Budding beneath is Fresh bracken in the meadows. |
Sagami
9
Right (Win)
花をだにをりてかへらんさわらびはをぎのやけのにいまぞおひいづる
| hana o dani orite kaeran sawarabi wa ogi no yakeno ni ima zo oi’izuru | At least some blossom Let us pick and then return! Fresh bracken On the burned plain of cogon grass Is now a’sprouting! |
Jijū no menoto
10
‘Fresh bracken’ is something which folk of old referred to in various ways, and the latter poem is in keeping with this. ‘At least some blossom / Let us pick and then return!’ is an extremely charming mental image, if one had simply seen it budding, one would wonder why the poet has not sought out some other location before returning home. Moving on to ‘Since hunters / All the nearby mountains’, this is an overly hackneyed, and thus distasteful, expression like ‘on eastern roads’, so the latter poem is superior, isn’t it.
MYS VIII: 1598
SKKS IV: 334
Topic unknown.
さをしかのあさたつ野べの秋はぎに玉とみるまでおけるしらつゆ
| saoshika no asa tatsu nobe no akihagi ni tama to miru made okeru shiratsuyu | Stags Stand in the morning meadows, where Upon the autumn bush clover As gemstones appearing Have fallen silver dewdrops. |
Middle Counsellor Yakamochi[i]
[i] This poem is included in Man’yōshū (VIII: 1598).
Kinkai wakashū 574
Kinkai wakashū 573
Tōgū gakushi noritada uta’awase 05
Hidden in the grass on the path o’er the plains[i]
Left
なつくればのべのくさばもしげりあひていづれかみちとみえぞわかれぬ
| natsu kureba nobe no kusaba mo shigeriaite izure ka michi to mie zo wakarenu | When the summer comes, The blades of grass upon the plains Grow lushly together, so Which is the path to take I cannot tell by looking! |
9
Right
をちこちのみちみえぬまでなつののはくさばしげくもなりにけるかな
| ochikochi no michi mienu made natsuno no wa kusaba shigeku mo narinikeru kana | Until both distant and nearby Paths I cannot see Across the summer plains Have the blades of grass so lushly Grown, indeed! |
10
Do they not know the features of the summer plains conveyed by ‘Hidden in the grass on the path o’er the plains’? While both Left and Right use ‘blades of grass’, this puts one in mind of fresh grass sprouting in spring showers; and then of the two of them, the Right uses ‘distant and nearby’, which is nothing more than an archaic expression from the Age of Gods used for leg-wearying mountain paths, while at least the Left does not have a tangled argument.
| ato miezu natsuno no kusaba shigeku tomo yamaji o kakete madoubeshi ya wa | No folk’s tracks visible Upon the summer plains—the blades of grass Lush, yet I wonder if upon mountain paths One would lose ones way? |
Judge 5
[i] Yasō no michi shigeshi 野草路滋
Nishinomiya uta’awase 17
Asters and the Same
Round Seventeen
Left
あふことは片野ののべの蘭たれきてみよと露のおくらん
| au koto wa katano no nobe no fujibakama tare kitemiyo to tsuyu no okuran | Our meeting, so hard: In the hillside meadows grow Violet asters— Who should to come to see them Amongst the fallen dew? |
Nakafusa, Former Governor of Awaji
33
Right
色もかもよそへてぞみる蘭ねずりの衣馴れしかたみに
| iro mo ka mo yosoete zo miru fujibakama nezuri no koromo nareshi katami ni | Both scent and hue Do I imagine seeing Among the violet asters, Of his patterned robe, So familiar, a reminder they are… |
Hyōenokami
34
These poems, both Left and Right, appear to be of about the same quality, but while I am familiar with robes patterned with purple gromwell, I do wonder what it is that is patterning the robes here. Is the poet composing on asters imagining them to be gromwell? Even if that’s the case, the conception is not particularly apparent, so I have to say that the Left is better.
