Left
はるのよのあかぬわかれのあかつきはちへのにしきをたつにざりける
| haru no yo no akanu wakare no akatsuki wa chie no nishiki o tatsu ni zarikeru | After a spring night, Unsatisfied, parting at The dawn, Sewn a thousandfold, the brocade Through which I go! |
26
Right
あけぬてふこゑもなみだももろともにうちいづるからにそでぞぬれける
| akenu chō koe mo namida mo morotomo ni uchi’izuru kara ni sode zo nurekeru | ‘Tis dawn, say Birdsongs and tears Both, Bursting out, so My sleeves are soaked! |
27
Left
うちさめてこひしきひとをおもふよはわがたましひもゆきてつげなん
| uchisamete koishiki hito o omou yo wa wa ga tamashii mo yukite tsugenan | Awaking when My darling girl Filled my thoughts all night, Even my soul Has gone to let her know! |
15
Right
よはにおきてこひぞわびぬるはるのよはゆめにみえつるひとのなければ
| yowa ni okite koi zo wabinuru haru no yo wa yume ni mietsuru hito no nakereba | Arising at midnight, and Suffering love’s fire On a night in spring, For in my dreams I saw My girl, though she’s not here now… |
16
Left
ひとこひてぬるはるのよはしきたへのまくらながれてうきぬべきかな
| hito koite nuru haru no yo wa shikitae no makura nagarete ukinubeki kana | Loving her, and Sleeping on a night in spring, My mulberry cloth Pillow in the flow Simply floats away! |
11
Right
ねざめするわがしきたへはいけなれやつまなきをしとなかれこそすれ
| nezamesuru wa ga shikitae wa ike nare ya tsuma naki oshi to nakare koso sure | On waking Is my mulberry cloth A pond, by chance? For as a mandarin drake without his duck Do I surely cry! |
12
Round Three
Left[i]
君が代は神にぞいのる住之江の松の千年をゆづれとおもへば
| kimi ga yo wa kami ni zo inoru suminoe no matsu no chitose o yuzure to omoeba | My Lord’s reign: To the gods I pray, that Suminoe’s Pines their thousand years Pass on—that is my hope… |
Retired from the World
61a
きみがへむやちよのかずはあめにますとよをかひめの神やしるらん
| kimi ga hemu yachiyo no kazu wa ame ni masu toyo’okahime no kami ya shiruran | That my Lord will endure The number of eight thousand ages— Residing in the heavens, The Goddess of the Eternal Hills, The deity, knows well, no doubt! |
Retired from the World
61b
Right (Win)
君がよはつきじとぞおもふ春の日の御笠の山にささむかぎりは
| kimi ga yo wa tsukiji to zo omou haru no hi no mikasa no yama ni sasamu kagiri wa | My Lord’s reign Will never fade, I feel! While in spring the sun Upon Mikasa Mountain Shines down… |
Senior Assistant Minister Past Lecturer
62
Both Left and Right have neither strengths nor weakness in their diction and sense, but I feel that ‘While in spring the sun / Upon Mikasa Mountain / Shines down’ is a bit more dependable at present than ‘Suminoe’s / Pines their thousand years’.
It is certainly not the case that there are no dubious elements about the Left’s poem. As ‘eight thousand ages’ is a definite number, what is it that the Goddess of the Eternal Hills is expected to know? If this is something in the deity’s hands, then it should be, ‘does not even know the number’. I’m sure the Goddess herself would ask what she’s expected to know. The Right seems stronger.
[i] There are different poems by Eien this round in different versions of the text of the contest. As can be inferred from the judgements, Mototoshi saw the first poem and Toshiyori the second. This strongly suggests that Mototoshi’s judgements were circulated before the text of the contest was submitted to Toshiyori, and Eien revised his poem this round as a result (Kubota et al. 2018, 308).
When the Ise Virgin Junior Consort had yet to leave, he attached this to some cherry blossom and sent it to her.
吹く風の音にききつつさくら花めには見えずも過ぐる春かな
| fuku kaze no oto ni kikitsutsu sakurabana me ni wa miezu mo suguru haru kana | In the gusting wind’s Whispers will I ever hear My cherry blossom, though My eyes behold her not As spring passes by… |
Composed by the Tenryaku Emperor
Composed and sent when he heard that Inspector Kinmichi had had a number of people compose poems on the bush warbler at his residence.
春霞たちへだつれど鶯の声はかくれぬものとしらずや
| harugasumi tachihedatsuredo uguisu no koe wa kakurenu mono to shirazu ya | The haze of spring Arising, interferes, yet The warbler Is unable to conceal his cry— I wonder if he know it? |
Former Consultant Tsunemori
Love
Left
恋といへばまづいでたちて春も皆ゆくらむ方も知らずもあるかな
| koi to ieba mazu idetachite haru mo mina yukuramu kata mo shirazu mo aru kana | This thing called love Has gone before, and The spring, too, no one It’s destination Knows at all! |
11
Right
年毎に花におくるるみにしあれば恋ひせぬ春のなきぞわびしき
| toshi goto ni hana ni okururu mi ni shi areba koisenu haru no naki zo wabishiki | Every single year Missing the blossom Is my sorry self, A springtime with no one to love Is there not, but still sad and lonely am I! |
12
The end of spring
Left
あだなりと世にいふ花は散らずしてすぎゆく春ぞかひなかりける
| adanari to yo ni iu hana wa chirazushite sugiyuku haru zo kainakarikeru | Faithless, does The world call blossom, Not scattering with The passage of spring, so What’s the point to it! |
9
Right
花もみなおのが散り散りはかなきを春を見すててゆくぞかなしき
| hana mo mina ono ga chirijiri hakanaki o haru o misutete yuku zo kanashiki | The blossoms, every one, Scatter themselves So fleetingly, and Heedlessly abandon spring, so Sad its departure is. |
10
Love
Left
わが恋は春のなかばになりにけり花のにほひに影やみゆると
| wa ga koi wa haru no nakaba ni narinikeri hana no nioi ni kage ya miyuru to | My love In the heart of spring Has come about: In the glow of blossom Can I see her face… |
7
Right
春はなほくるしかりけりさくら花いろのつきつつ恋のまされば
| haru wa nao kurushikarikeri sakurabana iro no tsukitsutsu koi no masareba | Spring is ever Full of pain: The cherry blossoms’ Hues exhausted, as My love is at its strongest… |
8
Round Four
Left (Win)
春の日をなほながかれとおもふかなはな見ることのあかぬこころは
| haru no hi o nao nagakare to omou kana hana miru koto no akanu kokoro wa | O, let the days of spring Still linger lengthily on, I wish! For Gazing on the blossom Has yet to sate my heart… |
Cell of the Fragrant Elephant
7
Right
ことしもやあだにちりぬる山ざくらさもあさましきはなのくせかな
| kotoshi mo ya ada ni chirinuru yamazakura sa mo asamashiki hana no kuse kana | This year, too, will You swiftly scatter, O, mountain cherry? That is a wretched Habit blossoms have! |
Cell of the Everlasting Truth
8
The poem of the Left’s final section is that of a pre-existing older poem.[i] The poem of the Right’s final section is deplorable. Even so, I make the Right the winner.
Both Left and Right are elegant. With that being said, the Left also sounds charming, while the Right’s concluding ‘habit!’, although it is not a major fault, grates on the ear a bit. This is another win for the Left.
[i] The ending of this poem in the texts of this match with Mototoshi’s judgements is different, with the final line being akanu kagiri wa (‘have yet to sate’). This means it closely resembles: Topic unknown. ゆきとまるところぞはるはなかりける花に心のあかぬかぎりは yukitomaru / tokoro zo haru wa / nakarikeru / hana ni kokoro no / akanu kagiri wa ‘To go and stay / A place in springtime / Have I none / For the blossoms, my heart / Have yet to sate completely.’ Sugawara no Tamenobu (GSIS I: 90). Kubota et al. (2018, 223) suggest that as we know that the version of the match that Toshiyori judged was produced later, this poem may have been revised in the light of Mototoshi’s judgement.