tonight | Waka Poetry

Cogon grass and the Same

Round Fifteen

Left

うき人を驚かすべき方ぞなきうらやましきは荻の上風

ukibito o
odorokasubeki
kata zo naki
urayamashiki wa
ogi no uwakaze

That cruel girl:
To make her notice me
I have no way at all!
How I envy
The wind blowing o’er the cogon grass!

Lecturer Kakuga
29

Right

荻原やよかぜぞつらき音せずはねてこそ人を夢にみましか

ogiwara ya
yokaze zo tsuraki
oto sezu wa
nete koso hito o
yume ni mimashika

O, plain of cogon grass,
How unkind is the wind tonight!
For without your sound, then
Indeed, I would sleep that she
I would glimpse within my dreams…

The Head
30

The conception of love sounds superior at present in envying the ‘wind blowing o’er the cogon grass’ than it does in the ‘unkind is the wind tonight’.

Round Four

Left (M – Tie)

白砂の霜よに置きてみつれども移ふ菊はまがはざりけり

shirotae no
shimo yo ni okite
mitsuredomo
utsurou kiku wa
magawazarikeri

White as mulberry cloth.
Frost has fallen tonight
I see, and yet
The faded chrysanthemums
I can clearly tell apart.

Lord Masakane
31

Right (T – Win)

八重菊の花の袂をあかずとや霜のうはぎを猶かさぬらん

yaegiku no
hana no tamoto o
akazu to ya
shimo no uwagi o
nao kasanuran

Of eightfold chrysanthemum
Bloomed sleeves
I cannot get my fill, but
Is a frosty jacket
Yet laid upon them?

Lord Tadafusa
32

Toshiyori states: the assemble company have stated about the first poem that in the absence of the moon or the stars it would difficult to distinguish chrysanthemums from the frost, and it certainly sounds like this would be the case. In the latter poem, we need to think of who it is that is feeling that they cannot get their fill of bloomed sleeves—the person wearing them should be included, or if the chrysanthemums are, perhaps, the subject, then ‘eightfold chrysanthemum’ is an error. Even so, the style of the poem seems elevated.

Mototoshi states: the poem stating ‘White as mulberry cloth. / Frost has fallen tonight’ is a bit hackneyed, and it then continues ‘The faded chrysanthemums / I can clearly tell apart’—I question whether one would really mistake faded chrysanthemums and frost. As for the Right’s poem, which says ‘Bloomed sleeves / I cannot get my fill’, well, this really is difficult to grasp. I spent quite a bit of time going back and forth agonizing over whether these were a person’s sleeves or those of the chrysanthemum! I feel that the diction in both poems is skillful, but there’s a lack of necessary information, so it’s impossible to decide a winner or loser here.