かりがねはかへるみちにやまよふらんこしのなかやま霞へだてて
| kari ga ne wa kaeru michi ni ya mayouran koshi no naka yama kasumi hedatete | Might the goose cries mean That on their homeward path They have gone astray? In Koshi-no-Nakayama’s Interfering haze… |
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Tag Archives: path
Kawara no in uta’awase 05
Blossoming silver grass beckoning folk.[i]
Left
はなすすきまねくたもとのあまたあればゆきもやられずあきのののみち
| hanasusuki maneku tamoto no amata areba yuki mo yararezu akino no michi | Of blossoming silver grass Beckoning sleeves Are there many, so I can go no further on The path across the autumn plains. |
9
Right (Win)
はなすすきまねくたもとやたゆからんはかるのかぜにかへるひとなみ
| hanasususki maneku tamoto ya tayukaran hakaru nokaze ni kaeru hito nami | Have the blossoming silver grass Sleeves their beckoning Ceased, perhaps? For with The deceitful breeze across the plains Returns not a single soul… |
10
[i] 花薄招人
Yōzei’in ichi no miko himegimi uta’awase 08
Original
あしひきのやまぢはあきぞまどひけるつもれるもみぢあとしなければ
| ashihiki no yamaji wa aki zo madoikeru tsumoreru momiji ato shinakereba | Leg-wearying Mountain paths in autumn Are lost, indeed! For piled with scarlet leaves Traces are their none… |
21
Left (Win)
もみぢばをたむけにつめるあきやまにみちみえずともたれかまどはむ
| momijiba o tamuke ni tsumeru akiyama ni michi miezu tomo tareka madowamu | Scarlet leaves are An offering made By the autumn mountains, so Though the path might go unseen, Who would lose their way? |
22
Right
あしひきのやまのもみぢしあかからばみちふみわけてたづぬばかりぞ
| ashihiki no yama no momiji shi akakaraba michi fumiwakete tazunu bakari zo | The leg-wearying Mountains’ scarlet leaves Are so bright, that Forging through along the paths To visit is all you need to do! |
23
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
Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 17
Left
あけぬとていまはとおくるとこなかにまたあふべくもおもほえぬかな
| akenu tote ima wa to okuru toko naka ni mata aubeku mo omohoenu kana | ‘Tis dawn, Now, I think, arising— Within your bed We should meet again, Don’t you think! |
32
Right
しののめにあけゆくみちもまどはなんあかでわかるるひとのためには
| shinonome ni akeyuku michi mo madowanan akade wakaruru hito no tame ni wa | At the edge of dawn, Brightening, upon the path I will wander, lost, Unsatisfied for I am parted From her… |
33
Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 16
Left
をしとおもふいのちにかへてあかつきのわかれのみちはいかでやめてむ
| oshi to omou inochi ni kaete akatsuki no wakare no michi wa ikade yametemu | Filled with regret, This life I would exchange: On dawn’s Parting path How can I stop my steps? |
30
Right
あけぬとてあかずしきみをわかるればこころはゆかぬものにざりける
| akenu tote akazu shi kimi o wakarureba kokoro wa yukanu mono ni zarikeru | When at dawn, Unsatisfied, from you, my love, I part, My heart goes nowhere At all! |
31
Yōzei’in miko futari uta’awase 13
Left
ゆふざれもさらにまたれずあさぼらけおきゆくみちのつゆとけぬべし
| yūzare mo sara ni matarezu asaborake okiyuku michi no tsuyu to kenubeshi | For eventide, Again, I cannot wait, but At the dawning Rise and go—my path filled With lasting dew, it seems. |
24
Right
あはぬよはわびてもねにきあかつきのわかれのみちはまどはれぞする
| awanu yo wa wabite mo ne ni ki akatsuki no wakare no michi wa madoware zo suru | Nights we fail to meet Are desolate, but when I have come and slept with you The dawn’s Parting path Leaves me lost! |
25
Eien narabō uta’awase 27
Round Six
Left
ふるゆきに山のほそみちうづもれてまれにとひこし人もかよはず
| furu yuki ni yama no hosomichi uzumorete mare ni toikoshi hito mo kayowazu | With the falling snow The mountain’s narrow pathways Are buried; But rarely did he visit and now Cannot make his way at all. |
Cell of Fragrant Cloud
53
Right
あしたつるみわのひばらにゆきふかみみやぎひくをのかよひぢもなし
| ashi tatsuru miwa no hibara ni yuki fukami miyagi hiku o no kayoiji mo nashi | Reeds stand tall in Miwa, where the cypress groves Are deep with snow; To cut sacred timber, the woodsman Has no path to tread at all. |
Cell of Compassionate Light
54
The Left’s poem, in terms of style and diction, entirely grasps the way someone might feel. What a sense of grief! The Right’s poem is composition that fairly drips and delves into playfulness, but in so doing lacks feeling. Truly, the former poem has superlative qualities, resembling a black dragon’s pearl![i] Thus, the Left must win.
The Left does seem to have been composed but simply stated. It possesses a calm elegance. The Right seems to have been created after a great deal of thought. This poem shows effort and the former such calm that I wish to declare them a tie. This may enrage the poets, but the ignorant may give the appearance of being knowledgeable, as they say. I wonder who composed these…
[i] Riju 驪珠 as an abbreviation of riryū no tama 驪龍の珠 (‘black dragon’s pearl’). Mototoshi uses this analogy deliberately as black dragons were associated with winter. The pearl, which they were often depicted as holding or being located in their throat, was a symbol of the dragon’s spiritual development and a marker of its immortality. This is thus an effusive statement of praise for Shōchō’s poem.
Eien narabō uta’awase 24
Round Three
Left
おぼつかないづれいづちのみちならむしをりも見えずふれるしらゆき
| obotsukana izure izuchi no michi naramu shiori mo miezu fureru shirayuki | How strange! Which is which Path, I wonder? Even the laden branches go unseen In the falling snow, so white. |
Retired from the World
47
Right
雪ふかみとなりのさともうづもれてけぶりのみこそしるしなりけれ
| yuki fukami tonari no sato mo uzumorete keburi nomi koso shirushi narikere | So deep the snow, that The estate next door Is buried; Trails of smoke are the only Sign it’s there! |
Senior Assistant Minister Past Lecturer
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The poem of the Left’s ‘even the laden branches go unseen’ and what follows is both poetic and a familiar usage. As for the Right’s poem, how can ‘the estate next door be buried’ unless it’s the only place that snow is falling and nowhere else? Thus, I feel that the snow falling to conceal the broken branches has more feeling to it.
The Left’s ‘which path’ gives me the impression that there are many of them. This sense of multiplicity is something I can imagine—which is a good thing—and, I think, see me using myself. ‘Laden branches’ are something which occur on peaks deep in the mountains. It might be a bit remiss of me, but I wonder whether I can imagine snow drifting so high on a mountain peak?
As for the Right’s poem, we use ‘next door’ when there’s a fence of some sort between one estate and another, don’t we? As such, saying that the smoke is the sign is rather vague. Even if there’s been a quite extraordinary snowfall, there would be something other to notice as well as the smoke, so this is an error, isn’t it. It would be acceptable to refer to smoke if the estate were further away.
SKS VI: 179
Sent in a letter when one of the lads who was an acolyte of his departed for a distant province, accompanying his father.
わかれぢの草葉をわけむ旅ごろもたつよりかねてぬるるそでかな
| wakaredi no kusaba wo wakemu tabigoromo tatu yori kanete nururu sode kana | Along the path that parts us, Forging through the leafy grasses In your traveller’s garb Since you have left, and before How soaked are my sleeves! |
Dharma Master Yūzen