The End of Autumn.
Left
琴の音に声よりあはせなく虫の秋のはつるはえこそしのばね
| koto no ne ni koe yori awase naku mushi no aki no hatsuru wa e koso shinobane | A zither’s strains Blended with the songs The insects cry, That autumn is ending They truly cannot recall! |
19
Right
長月の菊にぞ人をたのみつる花ひらくとも心うつるな
| nagatsuki no kiku zo hito o tanomitsuru hana hiraku tomo kokoro utsuru na | In the Longest Month A chrysanthemum, in a man Has placed its trust— The bloom may open, yet O, change not your heart! |
20
From a poetry match held by Tsurayuki when he was Suō province in Tengyō 2 – The beginning of Summer.
いつしかとなつになるらしうつせみのこゑもあはれになきはじむらし
| itsu shika to natsu ni narurashi utsusemi no koe mo aware ni nakihajimurashi | All of a sudden Summer has come, it seems: Cicada shell Songs, sadly Seem to sound in the air. |
Anonymous
Left – Rani
むしのねはまだおるとしもきこえぬをからにしきにもみゆる物かな
| mushi no ne wa mada oru to shimo kikoenu o karanishiki ni mo miyuru mono kana | The insects’ songs Yet weave and even though I hear them not As Cathay brocade Does all appear! |
15a
むしのねはまだおるとしもきこえぬをからにしきにもみゆるのべかな
| mushi no ne wa mada oru to shimo kikoenu o karanishiki ni mo miyuru nobe kana | The insects’ songs Yet weave and even though I hear them not As Cathay brocade Do the meadows appear! |
15b
Right
きる人をのべやしるらんふぢばかまいたづらにのみつゆのおきつつ
| kiru hito o nobe ya shiruran fujibakama itazura ni nomi tsuyu no okitsutsu | Folk wearing them Do the meadows know, perhaps? For upon these violet trousers In mischief alone Does the dew keep falling! |
16
Rani is a generic term for ‘orchid’ but in waka it was usually equated with eupatorium (a type of aster), which was also called fujibakama, the literal meaning of which was ‘wisteria [coloured] trousers’.
Round Eleven
Left (Win)
われこそは野べをば宿にうつしつれたがさそひこし虫の音ぞこは
| ware koso wa nobe oba yado ni utsushitsure ta ga sasoikoshi mushi no nezoko wa | ‘Twas I, indeed, who The meadow to my dwelling Shifted, but Who is it has been invited here By the insects’ songs? |
Shun’e Tayū no kimi
21
Right
秋の野の千くさの花の色色を心ひとつにそめてこそみれ
| aki no no no chikusa no hana no iroiro o kokoro hitotsu ni somete koso mire | The autumn meadows Thousand grasses’ blooms Have hues a’plenty, but My heart, but one, Has been dyed, you see! |
Mikawa, Court Lady to His Excellency
22
The Left sounds as if the poet is being comforted by the insects which is at some variance from the essential meaning of the topic, and yet when I listen to it, it has an abundance of charm. The Right doesn’t differ, does it, from Kanemasa’s poem in the Poetry Match held at the Residence of the Minister of the Centre in Gen’ei 2 [1119]:
秋くれば千くさに匂ふ花の色の心ひとつにいかでしむらん
| aki kureba chikusa ni niou hana no iro no kokoro hitotsu ni ikade shimuran | When the autumn comes The thousand grasses glow With flowers’ hues, but Why, then, does my heart with but one Seem to be stained? |
Thus, the Left wins.
Round Seven
Left (Win)
萩がはな分けゆく程は古郷へかへらぬ人もにしきをぞきる
| hagi ga hana wakeyuku hodo wa furusato e kaeranu hito mo nishiki o zo kiru | When through the bush-clover blooms He forges his way, To his ancient home Never to return—that man, too, Wears a fine brocade! |
Minamoto no Arifusa, Minor Captain in the Inner Palace Guards, Right Division
13
Right
声たてて鳴くむしよりも女郎花いはぬ色こそ身にはしみけれ
| koe tatete naku mushi yori mo ominaeshi iwanu iro koso mi ni wa shimikere | They lift their songs in Plaintive cries, but far more than the insects ‘Tis the maidenflower’s Wordless hue that truly Pierce my soul! |
Junior Assistant Minister of Central Affairs Sadanaga
14
The Left is well-composed, but what is the Right’s ‘wordless hue’? Are we supposed to imagine that the expression means ‘silent yellow’? This is difficult to grasp, isn’t it. Whatever way you look at it, the Left seems to win.
Composed when a hundred poem sequence was presented to His Majesty, during the reign of Former Emperor Horikawa.
さまざまに心ぞとまる宮城野の花のいろいろ虫の声ごゑ
| samazama ni kokoro zo tomaru miyagino no Fana no iroiro musi no kowegowe |
So many things Do rest within my heart: On Miyagi plain The multicoloured blossom and The insects’ songs. |
Minamoto no Toshiyori
源俊頼
This poem is also Horikawa hyakushu 1400.
