Tag Archives: Okuyama

Dairi uta’awase – Tenryaku ku-nen 02

Round Two

Left

しらつゆのこのはをわきておくやまのふかきもみぢはいろもうつらじ

shiratsuyu no
ko no ha o wakite
okuyama no
fukaki momiji wa
iro mo utsuraji
Silver dewfall
Marks out the leaves upon the trees;
In the mountains’ heart,
Deep scarlet the autumn leaves
Hues, too, will never fade away.

3[i]

Right (Win)

くれなゐのやしほのいろはもみぢばに秋くははれるとしにざりける

kurenai no
yashio no iro wa
momijiba ni
aki kuwawareru
toshi ni zarikeru
With vermillion
Dippings eight, hue is laid
Upon the scarlet leaves with
Autumn added
To the year!

4[ii]


[i] This poem is included in Gyokuyōshū (V: 794/795) with the headnote, ‘For the scarlet leaves match during the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’.

[ii] This poem is included in Gyokuyōshū (V: 795/796) with the headnote, ‘For the scarlet leaves match during the reign of the Tenryaku emperor’. It is also included in Mandaishū (V: 1223) with the headnote, ‘A poem from the autumn leaves match held at the palace in the intercalary Ninth Month, Tenryaku 9’ and in Kiyotada-shū (38), with the headnote ‘From an autumn leaves match at the palace, in a year when there were two ninth months’.

Kinkai wakashū 613

Composed after I had met Dharma Eye Teinin,[i] and heard him tell the tale of Ōmine[ii] among other things.

おくやまの苔のころもに置く露は涙の雨のしづくなりけり

okuyama no
koke no koromo ni
oku tsuyu wa
namida no ame no
shizuku narikeri
Deep within the mountains
Upon his robe of moss
The falling dewdrops are
A rain of tear
Droplets.

613


[i] Teinin 定忍 has not been identified, but from the context here, he must have been a yamabushi 山伏, an itinerant Buddhist monk and practitioner of shugendō.

[ii] Ōmine 大峰 was a mountain in Yoshino in Yamato which was a major location for practitioners of the ascetic Buddhist practice of shugendō 修験道, which involved, among other things, ascending the mountain to increase one’s spiritual power.

Fubokushō XXIX: 13961

From the Poetry Match held by Tsurayuki in the Second Month. Tengyō 2 – The Middle of Winter.

しら雪の降りつもりぬるおく山はあからがしはもうづもれにけり

shirayuki no
furitsumorinuru
okuyama wa
akaragashiwa
uzumorenikeri
Snow, so white,
Has fallen, drifted high,
Deep within the mountains
The scarlet-leaved oaks
Are completely buried.

Anonymous