Written down on a pieice of folded paper when the snow was falling, around when he was deciding to become a monk.
世の中にふるぞはかなき白雪のかつはきえぬる物としるしる
| yo no naka ni Furu zo Fakanaki sirayuki no katu Fa kienu mono to sirusiru | Through this mundane world Fleetingly falling The snow, so white, Is swift to vanish— That I know only too well… |
Fujiwara no Takamitsu
Composed on travel
しら雲のかかるたびねもならはぬにふかき山ぢに日はくれにけり
| shirakumo no kakaru tabine mo narawanu ni fukaki yamaji ni hi wa kurenikeri | Clouds, so white, Surround me, sleeping on my travels, Unaccustomed to it, On deep mountain trails The sun has set. |
Supernumerary Archbishop Eien[1]
権僧正永縁
[1] This poem was originally composed for Horikawa hyakushu (1372).
Poems matched by the retainers of the Reikeiden Junior Consort, around the Third Month, Tenryaku 10.
Haze
Left (Tie)
あさひさすみねのしらゆきむらぎえてはるのかすみはたなびきにけり
| asahi sasu mine no shirayuki muragiete haru no kasumi wa tanabikinikeri | Morning sun shines upon The snow upon the peak, so white, All vanishing with The haze of spring A’trailing. |
Kanemori
1
Right
みよしのはゆきふりやまずさむけれどかすみぞはるのしるべなりける
| miyoshino wa yuki furiyamazu samukeredo kasumi zo haru no shirube narikeru | In fair Yoshino, where Never does the snow stop falling, ‘Tis cold, yet Haze of spring Is a sign. |
2
Round Seven
Left (Win)
しらゆきのふりしきぬればかづらきやくめのいはばしそことしられず
| shirayuki no furishikinureba kazuraki ya kume no iwabashi soko to shirarezu | Snow, so white Has fallen, scattering Upon Kazuraki, that The broken stone bridge of Kume Is there no one knows at all. |
Lady Kazusa
55
Right
まきもくのあなしひばらもうづもれてかかるみゆきもふればふりけり
| makimoku no anashi hibara no uzumorete kakaru miyuki mo fureba furikeri | In Makimoku Anashi’s cypress groves Are buried, Such a fair fall of snow Has there been. |
Lady Shikibu
56
The Left has neither positives nor negatives. Up to ‘the broken stone bridge of Kume’ shows some imagination. It feels overly remote. The Right’s ‘Anshi’s cypress groves’ is something I’ve not encountered in a poem before. The standard usage is ‘cypress groves of Anashi’. Compared to this, I feel the expression is more unsatisfactory. ‘Such a fair fall of snow / Has there been’ is surprising, too, and not something I’m accustomed to seeing, so the Left seems a bit better at present.
The Left does not appear to have any significant faults. ‘That’ in ‘upon Kazuraki, that’ sounds a bit distant. If you’re talking about a bridge, you should say that you can see across it, shouldn’t you. It is a bridge which it’s impossible to cross, so that’s difficult to say. The Right’s expression ‘Anashi’s cypress groves’ is pedestrian so I would have preferred it omitted. In addition, the final ‘has there been’ feels commonplace. A win for the Left, perhaps.
From the Poetry Match held by Tsurayuki in the Second Month. Tengyō 2 – The Middle of Winter.
しら雪の降りつもりぬるおく山はあからがしはもうづもれにけり
| shirayuki no furitsumorinuru okuyama wa akaragashiwa uzumorenikeri | Snow, so white, Has fallen, drifted high, Deep within the mountains The scarlet-leaved oaks Are completely buried. |
Anonymous
Round Eleven
Left (Both Judges – Tie)
こけのむす岩ねに残る八重ぎくはや千代さくとも君ぞみるべき
| koke no musu iwane ni nokoru yaegiku wa yachiyo saku tomo kimi zo mirubeki | Choked with moss are The crags where linger Eightfold chrysanthemums: E’en were they eight thousand ages a’bloom My Lord would have beheld them, no doubt! |
Lady Shinano
45
Right
霜がれに我ひとりとや白菊の色をかへても人にみすらん
| shimogare ni ware hitori to ya shiragiku no iro o kaetemo hito ni misuran | ‘Burned by frost ‘Tis me alone!’ thinks A white chrysanthemum, Changing hue To show to folk, for sure. |
Lord Tokimasa
46
Toshiyori states: I wonder if there is a poem as precedent for chrysanthemums lingering beneath moss-covered crags? If not, it’s a very crude expression. The ending of the poem is antiquated, too. As for the second poem ‘“Tis me alone!” thinks’ does not sound satisfactory. The assembled company settled the matter of the final ‘folk’, so I must make this a tie.
Mototoshi states: whether they are placed by a brushwood fence, or at the base of a crag, chrysanthemums feel like pines. As for the Right, having a chrysanthemum seem to think ‘‘tis me alone’ is speculative—had it been something like ‘this bloom opens’ then it would have been the poet’s thoughts. Neither of these is of quality to win or lose, so I make them a tie.
Round Nine
Left (M – Tie)
秋くれて千草の花は残らねど独うつろふ白菊のはな
| aki kurete chigusa no hana wa nokoranedo hitori utsurou shiragiku no hana | Autumn sinks to twilight, and Of a thousand blossoms Not one lingers, save Alone and fading A white chrysanthemum bloom. |
Lord Shigemoto
41
Right (T – Win)
かぎりなく君が千代経むしるしにや散残るらん宿のしらぎく
| kagirinaku kimi ga chiyo hemu shirushi ni ya chirinokoruran yado no shiragiku | That endless through A thousand ages will my Lord pass A sign there is: Not scattering and lingering White chrysanthemums at his house! |
Lord Tadataka
42
Toshiyori states: I don’t have much to point out about the poem on ‘autumn sinking to twilight’, except that it could have had ‘indeed, linger’ in place of ‘not one lingers, yet’ to lead to ‘alone and fading’. As for the second poem, there are no other examples of saying ‘chrysanthemums scatter’, yet I do wonder about how this sounds? Nevertheless, it has a conception of Felicitation and this makes it somehow superior.
Mototoshi states: the poems of Left and Right are of the same standard in both conception and diction, so it’s not possible to tell them apart. These, too, are of the same quality.
