五月来ば信太の杜の時鳥木伝ふ千枝の数ごとに鳴け
satsuki koba shinoda no mori no hototogisu ko tsutau chie no kazugoto ni nake |
When the summer comes, In Shinoda’s sacred grove Cuckoos Annouce the tree’s thousand branches With a song for every one! |
Minamoto no Shunrai
五月来ば信太の杜の時鳥木伝ふ千枝の数ごとに鳴け
satsuki koba shinoda no mori no hototogisu ko tsutau chie no kazugoto ni nake |
When the summer comes, In Shinoda’s sacred grove Cuckoos Annouce the tree’s thousand branches With a song for every one! |
Minamoto no Shunrai
思ふ事千々にや繁き呼子鳥信太の杜の方に鳴くなり
omoFu koto tidi ni ya sigeki yobukodori sinoda no mori no kata ni nakunari |
Are my thoughts As profuse as the thousand upon thousands of Cuckoos Toward Shinoda’s sacred grove A’calling? |
Ōe no Masafusa
Composed at the poetry competition held at the residence of imperial princess Sukeko (Yūshi) on 5th day of the Sixth Month Eishō 5 (1051).
夜だにあけば尋ねてきかむ郭公信太の杜の方になくなり
yo dani akeba tadunete kitamu Fototogisu sinoda no mori no kata ni nakunari |
With the simple break of dawn Do they come to call: The cuckoos In Shinoda’s sacred grove Do sing. |
Nōin
Topic unknown.
我思ふ事の繁きに比ぶれば信太の杜の千枝は数かは
wa ga omoFu koto no sigeki ni kurabureba sinoda no mori no tie Fa kazu ka Fa |
My thoughts: Profusion Were you to compare, Shinoda’s sacred groves’s Thousand branches might match their number! |
Zōgi
増基
和泉なる信太の杜の楠の葉の千枝にわかれて物をこそ思へ
izumi naru sinoda no mori no kusu no Fa no tie ni wakarete mono wo koso omoFe |
In Izumi At Shinoda’s sacred grove The camphor leaves On a thousand branches spread As do all my thoughts… |
Left.
ひまもなく信太の杜に聞ゆ也千枝にや來鳴く蝉の諸聲
hima mo naku shinoda no mori ni kikoyu nari chie ni ya kinaku semi no morogoe |
Ceaselessly In Shinoda forest Does one hear From the thousand branches of the camphor tree The cicadas’ jostling songs? |
293
Right (Win).
夏山の木ごとにひゞく心地して一方ならぬ蝉の諸聲
natsuyama no ki goto ni hibiku kokochishite hitokata naranu semi no morogoe |
In the summer mountains Every single tree resounds, I feel, From all sides comes The cicadas’ jostling songs. |
The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.
294
Both Left and Right state simply that they found the other’s poem ‘unsatsifying’.
Shunzei wonders, ‘Whether “Shinoda forest cicadas” (shinoda no mori no semi) is entirely appropriate? It has more the feeling of cuckoos, I think. “Every single tree resounds” (ki goto ni hibiku kokochi sen) is more like it. Thus, I would make Right the winner.’
After Izumi Shikibu had been abandoned by Michisada, Akazome Emon heard that almost immediately Prince Atsumichi had begun to visit her, and sent her this:
うつろはでしばしゝのだのもりをみよかへりもぞするくずのうら風
utsurowade shibashi shinoda no mori o miyo kaeri mo zo suru kuzu no ura kaze |
Turn not! And For a while on Shinoda Forest rest your gaze! For it may return again: The breeze ‘neath the arrowroot leaves. |
Akazome Emon
赤染衛門
At a time when everyone was composing poems from topics picked at random, he composed this on ‘the autumn wind in the forest at Shinoda’.
日をへつゝをとこそまされいづみなるしのだのもりのちえの秋風
hi wo hetsutsu oto koso masare izumi naru shinoda no mori no chie no aki kaze |
As the days go by The sound grows ever greater At Izumi In the forest of Shinoda A thousand branches rustle in the autumn wind. |
Fujiwara no Tsunehira