sode makura shimo oku toko no koke no ue ni akasu bakari no sayo no nakayama
With my sleeve for my pillow, and Frost falling on my bed Atop the moss, Swiftly breaks the dawn At Sayo-no-Nakayama.[i]
582
[i] See: On a storm at one’s lodgings on a journey, for the Iwashimizu Poetry Match. 岩がねのとこに嵐をかたしきてひとりやねなんさよの中山 iwa ga ne no / toko ni arashi o / katashikite / hitori ya nenan / sayo no Nakayama ‘At the crags’ foot / Lies my bed with the storm wind / Alone, spread upon me— / Lonely, must I sleep? / At Sayo-no-Nakayama…’ Lord Ari’ie (Shinkokinshū X: 962)
koishisa ni omoi’yosoete ominaeshi oru wa ga sode zo itodo tsuyukeki
In my yearning Alike, I feel, is This maidenflower— The sleeve I picked her with is Utterly drenched with dew!
The Former Assistant Governor-General 21
Right
なつかしく折る手にかをれ女郎花恋しき人もわするばかりに
natsukashiku oru te ni kaore ominaeshi koishiki hito mo wasuru bakari ni
So sweetly In my hand that picked you shine, O, maidenflower! That the one I love I would forget a while…
His Excellency, the Head 22
The Left’s ‘sleeve I picked her with is / Utterly drenched with dew’ is a form of words entirely in tune with the topic—it appears charmingly exactly how a poem in a poetry match should be. Then the Right expresses as somewhat shallow and unreliable conception of love that might be forgotten in the face of the shine of a maidenflower picked and held in the hand. Thus, I feel the dew-drenched sleeves are superior here, aren’t they.
