Tag Archives: tori

Love IV: 27

Left.
來ぬ床は明る頼みもなき物をひまや白むと待ぞあやしき

konu toko wa
akuru tanomi mo
naki mono o
hima ya shiromu to
matsu zo ayashiki
An unvisited bed,
Of light has
No hope, but
Brightening through my bedroom door
Is what I am awaiting – how strange…

Lord Kanemune.
833

Right (Win).
頼めつゝ更けゆく夜半を歎きても鳥の音をやは待あかしつる

tanometsutsu
fukeyuku yowa o
nagekitemo
tori no ne o ya wa
matsu akashitsuru
Time and again he’d say he’d come, and
Through the deepening night
I’d grieve, but
Is it now for the first bird call
That I have awaited the dawn?

Lord Takanobu.
834

The Right state: ‘Unvisited bed’ (konu toko) sounds as if it is the bed doing the visiting. The Left state: we do not feel that the Right’s poem expresses its intended sense fully.

In judgement: I feel it sounds better to say that ‘through the deepening night’ (fukeyuku yowa) ‘is it now for the first bird call’ (tori no ne o ya wa) that one waits, rather than that one is in ‘an unvisited bed’ (konu toko) waiting for ‘brightening through my bedroom door’ (hima ya shiromu).

Love IV: 22

Left.
夕まぐれひとつ離れて飛鳥も寢に行く方はありけりと見ゆ

yūmagure
hitotsu hanarete
tobu tori mo
ne ni yuku kata wa
arikeri to miyu
As the evening comes
As a single, distant,
Flying bird
Going to roost do
I seem to be…

Kenshō.
823

Right.
今は我待たじと思ふ心さへまたかき亂す蜘蛛の振舞

ima wa ware
mataji to omou
kokoro sae
mata kakimidasu
kumo no furumai
Now, I
Will wait no more, I think, and
My very heart
Is thrown into confusion by
The spider spinning…

Jakuren.
824

Both Left and Right state: we find no faults to remark upon.

In judgement: the Left’s ‘flying bird going’ (tobu tori no yuku kata) and the Right’s ‘spider spinning’ (kumo no furumai) are both certainly not uncharming. I make this round a tie.

MYS I: 78

It is said that Her Majesty, when on the way to the capital, Nara, from the Fujiwara palace, had her palanquin halted at Nagaya-no-hara and composed this poem gazing at her former home.

飛鳥 明日香能里乎 置而伊奈婆 君之當者 不所見香聞安良武 [一云 君之當乎 不見而香毛安良牟]

飛ぶ鳥の明日香の里を置きて去なば君があたりは見えずかもあらむ

tobu tori no
asuka no sato wo
okite inaba
kimi ga atari pa
miezu kamo aramu
A bird in flight:
If the estate of Asuka
I should leave behind,
Then my Lord’s lands
I will see no more.

Empress Genmei (660-721)
元明皇后

MYS III: 382

A poem composed by Tajihi no Kunihito on climbing the hill of Tsukuba.

鶏が鳴く 東の国に 高山は さはにあれども 二神の 貴き山の 並み立ちの 見が欲し山と 神世より 人の言ひ継ぎ 国見する 筑波の山を 冬こもり 時じき時と 見ずて行かば まして恋しみ 雪消する 山道すらを なづみぞ我が来る

tori ga naku
aduma no kuni ni
takayama pa
sa pa aredomo
putagami no
taputoki yama no
namitati no
migaposi yama to
kamuyo yori
pito no ipitugi
kunimi suru
tukuba no yama wo
puyukomori
toki ziki toki to
mizute ikaba
masite koposimi
yukigesuru
yamamiti sura wo
nadumi zo wa ga keru
In the bird-calling
Eastern lands
Mighty mountains
Many lie, yet
Twin deities –
The sacred mountains
Lie side-by-side;
Never tiring of the sight
Since the age of Gods
Have folk told the tale;
Gazing at the land:
Mount Tsukuba
Lay sealed in winter;
Not the time to do it, but
Without gazing at the land I did go, and
Loved it all the more;
Snow melting on
The mountain paths, even them
Have I climbed straining!

Tajihi no Mahitokunihito
丹比真人国人

Shōji godo hyakushu 461

雲とづる松の枢に知らむ夜はひと声つくる鳥だにもなし

kumo tozuru
matsu no toboso ni
shiramu yo wa
hito koe tsukuru
tori dani mo nashi
Closed in with cloud
By my pinewood door
I know well this night
That to give a single chirp
There is not even one bird.

Fujiwara no Takazane
藤原隆実

Shōji godo hyakushu
正治後度百首
(1200)

Love IV: 1

Left (Win).
夜を深みしば鳴く鶏は我ごとく寢ても覺めても戀やすべなき

yo o fukami
shibanaku kake wa
ware gotoku
netemo sametemo
koi ya subenaki
At the close of night
The cock crows from time to time,
Just as I
Both sleeping and waking,
Won’t a thought of love console me?

Kenshō.
781

Right.
逢ひ見ては憂き折節も鳥の音に思出づれば戀しかりける

aimite wa
uki orifushi mo
tori no ne ni
omoi’izureba
koishikarikeru
A meeting always
Brings a painful parting, but
The cock’s crow
Brings back memories
Of the one I love…

Jakuren.
781

The Right state: we cannot comprehend a cock feeling thoughts of love when asleep. The Left state: the initial section of the Right’s poem is incomprehensible. The second section is antiquated.

In judgement: the Left’s ‘cock crows from time to time’ (shibanaku kake) and ‘Won’t a thought of love console me?’ (koi ya subenaki) are expressions the style of which I am unable to accept. Moreover, I don’t feel that cocks really have thoughts of love while they are asleep. But, I have wondered, when hearing them crow so vigorously at dawn whether, ‘just as I, both sleeping and waking, they are thinking of love’? The Right’s poem is somewhat naïve in style, and suggests that after having met, and parted from, a lover, subsequently hearing the cock crow brings back mixed feelings of love and sorrow, but the initial impression it gives is that because a meeting has brought about painful feelings, something has happened – but what this is is left unclear. The Left’s poem is certainly not out of keeping with one in this style. Thus, the Left should win.

Winter II: 19

Left (Win).

冴ゆる夜に鴛鴦の衾を方敷きて袖の氷を拂ひかねつゝ

sayuru yo ni
oshi no fusuma o
katashikite
sode no kōri o
haraikanetsutu
On a freezing night
Beneath my duck-down bedding
I lie alone;
The ice upon my sleeve
I can never brush away…

A Servant Girl.

577

Right.

木の葉をや鳥の上毛に殘すらん閨の衾も冴ゆる霜夜に

ko no ha o ya
tori no uwage ni
nokosuran
neya no fusuma mo
sayuru shimo yo ni
Are there any leaves
Left by the birds
For extra feathers?
The bedding in my chamber
Is frozen with frost tonight…

Jakuren.

578

Neither Left nor Right have anything in particular to say.

Shunzei’s judgement: I wonder about accepting the Left’s ‘Beneath my duck-down bedding I lie alone’ (oshi no fusuma o katashikite). The strengths and weaknesses are plain, and so there is not much more to say than that. The Left wins.