Tag Archives: ukibito

Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 34

Round Ten

Left (T – Tie; M – Win)

憂き人をわすれはてなで忘川なにとて絶えず恋わたるらん

ukibito o
wasurehatenade
wasuregawa
nani tote taezu
koi wataruran
That cruel girl
I am unable to ever forget,
Even by Wasure—Forgetting—River
Why is it that endlessly
My love continues on?

Lord Tadafusa
67

Right

恋すてふこひはこれにて限りてん後にもかかる物をこそおもへ

koisu chō
koi wa kore nite
kagiriten
nochi ni mo kakaru
mono o koso omoe
Love, they say,
Of love right here
Let’s make an end!
But later, still such
Painful feelings will I have…

Lord Munekuni
68

Toshiyori states: the first poem has nothing special about it—poems of this quality are unremarkable. The later poem says, ‘Of love right here / Let’s make an end!’—is it saying that the poet will fall in love with someone else? It’s difficult to say that he’d do that from the following day. It’s vague and doesn’t sound clear. These poems are of the same quality, aren’t they.

Mototoshi states: while neither of these has any faults, the Right’s ‘right here let’s make an end’ seems particularly undesirable. ‘Why is it that endlessly’ is slightly more poetic in the current context, I feel.

Naidaijin-ke uta’awase 17

Round Five

Left (T – Tie; M – Win)

秋はてて霜枯れぬれどきくの花残れる色は深くみえけり

aki hatete
shimogarenuredo
kiku no hana
nokoreru iro wa
fukaku miekeri
With the end of autumn
Burned by frost they are, yet
The chrysanthemum blooms’
Lingering hues
Appear all the deeper.

Lady Shinano
33

Right

白ぎくも移ひにけりうき人のこころばかりとなにおもひけむ

shiragiku mo
utsuroinikeri
ukibito no
kokoro bakari to
nani omoikemu
This white chrysanthemum, too
Has faded; ‘tis simply as
My cruel lady’s
Heart—
I wonder why would I think so?

A Court Lady
34

Toshiyori states: the first poem has ‘With the end of autumn / Burned by frost they are’ and this gives the impression that there is nothing remaining. But saying that autumn has ended, yet one can still see the chrysanthemums, so, in the end, ‘hues appear all the deeper’ means there is a mismatch between the beginning and end of the poem. As for the second poem, it’s a commonplace style of composition to say that you despise someone who has forgotten you, but this is certainly a love poem, and it does not resemble a chrysanthemum one. Nevertheless, there’s nothing particular to point out in this poem and it has some vague parts, so I say this is a tie.

Mototoshi states: the phrase ‘Lingering hues / Appears all the deeper’ doesn’t say what these look like or how they appear. In addition, the poem’s style is not that superlative, and its diction seems halting. With that being said, however, the poem of the Right does not resemble one regretting the chrysanthemums in the slightest. It expresses the feelings of despite between a man and woman who have parted and become distant from each other using the metaphor of the chrysanthemum, and thus the conception of the topic lacks depth, so again the Left has to win.

SZS XV: 918

Composed as a love poem, when she presented a hundred poem sequence.

うき人をしのぶべしとは思ひきやわが心さへなどかはるらん

ukibito wo
sinobubesi to Fa
omoFiki ya
wa ga kokoro saFe
nado kaFaruran
Of that heartless man
I would secretly be fond,
I thought, so why
Does my heart, too,
Seem to have changed?

Taikenmon’in Horikawa

A kuzushiji version of the poem's text.
Created with Soan.