Showers
Round One
Left (Win – Both judges)
終夜嵐の音にたぐひつつ木の葉とともに降るしぐれかな
| yomosugara arashi no oto ni taguitsutsu ko no ha to tomo ni furu shigure kana | All night long The sound of storm winds Is laced With that of leaves and Falling showers! |
Lady Settsu, in service to the Empress
1
Right
おぼつかないかにしぐるる空なればうらごの山のかたみなせなる
| obotsukana ika ni shigururu sora nareba urago no yama no kataminase naru | How puzzling it is! What sort of shower From the skies is it that Makes Urago Mountain Show such a thing? |
Lord Toshiyori
2
Toshiyori states: While the conception and diction of the first poem are not that unusual, it appears to have no errors to indicate. The second poem’s choice of diction—using ‘show such a thing’—is vague: I wonder if when composing about this mountain that’s what one does? Nevertheless, the assembled company have stated that ‘Urago Mountain’ feels unpoetic as a piece of diction, and thus I make the Left the winner.
Mototoshi states: I feel that ‘With that of leaves and / Falling showers!’ is a moving and charming conception, but find it impossible to understand why Urago Mountain should ‘show such a thing’ in the poem of the Right! I have to say that the Left is superior.
When she had gone to Kamo on a winter’s night when the moon was shining brightly.
神がきや松のあらしもおとさえて霜にしもしく冬の夜のつき
| kamigaki ya matsu no arashi mo oto saete shimo ni shimo shiku fuyu no yo no tsuki | At the sacred grounds, Storm winds through the pines Sound so chill; Frost atop of frost is spread, The moon this winter’s night. |
Kenreimon’in ukyō no daibu
Round Twelve
Left (Tie)
あらし吹くまくずが原に鳴く鹿は恨みてのみや妻をこふらん
| arashi fuku makuzu ga hara ni naku shika wa uramite nomi ya tsuma o kouran | Storm winds blow Across the arrowroot upon the plain Where bells a stag— Might it be with bitterness, alone, that He yearns for a mate? |
Shun’e
47
Right
山里は妻こひかぬる鹿の音にさもあらぬ我もねられざりけり
| yamazato wa tsuma koikanuru shika no ne ni sa mo aranu ware mo nerarezarikeri | In a mountain retreat, Filled with too much yearning for his mate A stag bells out— ‘Tis not true of me, yet Still I cannot sleep. |
Lay Priest Master
48
The Left’s stag’s bell seeming to despise the arrowroot field and the Right’s inability to sleep on hearing a stag belling at a mountain retreat are both evocative of lonely sadness and neither sounds at all inferior to the other in the depths of the emotion they convey, so I find myself quite unable to distinguish between them.
Composed on the conception of falling leaves.
たつた山ふもとの里はとほけれどあらしのつてにもみぢをぞみる
| tatutayama Fumoto no sato Fa toFokeredo arasi no tute ni momidi wo zo miru | Tatsuta Mountain From this estate in the foothills Lies far away, yet The storm wind’s actions mean I see scarlet leaves! |
Hōribe no Narinaka
Left
霜がれの枝となわびそ白雪を花にやとひてみれどもあかず
| shimogare no eda to na wabi so shirayuki o hana ni ya toite miredomo akazu | For the frost-burned Branches, grieve not, for White snows As blossom will visit them, and The sight will never sate. |
131
Right
嵐ふく山下里にふる雪はとくむめの花咲くかとぞ見る
| arashi fuku yamashitazato ni furu yuki wa toku mume no hana saku ka to zo miru | The storm wind blows Upon the village ‘neath the mountains, where Fallen snow, Long since, had plum blossom Made seem to bloom? |
132
A poem composed by the deceased Emperor on the occasion of a visit to the Yoshino Palace.
見吉野乃 山下風之 寒久尓 為當也今夜毛 我獨宿牟
み吉野の山のあらしの寒けくにはたや今夜も我が独り寝む
| miyosino no yama no arasi no samukeku ni pata ya koyopi mo wa ga pitori nemu | Though in fair Yoshino The storm-winds off the mountains Feel so chill, Yet again tonight Will I sleep alone? |
Emperor Monmu (683-707; r. 697-707)
文武
Left (Win).
思ひあまりながむる空の掻き曇り月さへ我を厭ひつるかな
| omoFi’amari nagamuru sora no kakikumori tuki saFe ware wo itoFituru kana |
Filled full with love The sky on which I turn my gaze Is drowned in darkness; Even the moon from me Does shy! |
The Consultant Middle Captain 宰相中将
[Minamoto no Kuninobu 源国信]
25
Right.
嵐吹く夜寒の里の寝覚めにはいとど人こそ恋ひしかりけれ
| arasi Fuku yo samu no sato no nezame ni Fa itodo Fito koso koFisikarikere |
Stom winds rage Round my night-chilled home; Starting from sleep How much more do I love her now… |
The Minister of Justice 刑部卿
[Minamoto no Akinaka 源顕仲]
26
