Tag Archives: traveller

Love IV: 20

Left (Win).
玉ほこの道行き人も心ありて來んと頼めよこの夕卜には

tamahoko no
michi yukibito mo
kokoro arite
kon to tanomeyo
kono yūke ni wa
Jewelled spear straight
The road for this traveller:
If he longs for me,
Let it say, ‘Come with me!’,
This evening’s fortune!

Lord Kanemune.
819

Right.
逢ことを頼むる暮と思せば入相の鐘も嬉しからまし

au koto o
tanomuru kure to
omoiseba
iriai no kane mo
ureshikaramashi
‘We will meet,
On that you can rely, at dusk,’
He made me think, so
The sunset bell, too,
Does seem full of joy!

The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.
820

The Right state: evening fortune-telling and crossroad divination are different things. The Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults.

In judgement: both evening fortune-telling and crossroad divination are conducted in the evening, and with either one could wish ‘Let it say, “Come with me!”’ (kon to tanomeyo), so this does not seem to be a mistake does it? The Right has the fault of having both ‘We will meet’ (au koto o) and ‘sunset bell, too’ (iriai no kane mo). The Left should win.

Summer I: 7

Left (Win).

旅人や夏野の草を分けくらん菅の小笠の見え隱れする

tabibito ya
natsuno no kusa o
wakekuran
suge no ogasa no
miekakuresuru
Does a traveller
Through the grasses on the summer plains
Come forging?
A woven hat of sedge
Revealed and then concealed…

Lord Kanemune.

193

Right.

夏草の茂みを行ば何となく露分け衣袖ぞ濡れける

natsu kusa no
shigemi o yukeba
nani to naku
tsuyu wake koromo
sode zo nurekeru
Through the summer grass’
Lush growth a’going
Somehow
My robe’s dew breaking
Sleeves are drenched.

Lord Tsune’ie.

194

The Right have no criticisms to make of the Left’s poem, but the Left remark that, ‘the phrase “somehow” (nani to naku) is obscure and discordant.’

Shunzei comments, ‘While the style [fūtei] of the Left’s poem is somewhat lacking, it otherwise has no faults. The Right’s “robe’s dew breaking” (tsuyu wake koromo) is superb, but as a whole the expression in the poem is insufficient. The Left wins.’