Tag Archives: yamai

Hon’in sadaijin-ke uta’awase 07

Marlberry

Left

あさごとにきりはふれどもあしひきのやまたち花はいろもかはらず

asa goto ni
kiri wa furedomo
ashihiki no
yamatachibana wa
iro mo kawarazu
With every morning
The mist rolls down, yet on
The leg-wearying
Mountains, the marlberry’s
Hues remain unchanged.

13

Right

みねだにやすみうくならんあしひきのやまたち花のみやまゐをせる

mine dani ya
sumi’ukunaran
ashihiki no
yamatachibana no
miyamai o seru
Does even the peak
Seem so hard to dwell upon?
The leg-wearying
Mountain marlberry has
Turned the hidden spring a darker hue.

14

Love IX: 30

Left (Win)
忘れずは馴し袖もやこほこほるらむ寝ぬ夜の床の霜のさむしろ

wasurezu wa
nareshi sode mo ya
kōruramu
nenu yo no toko no
shimo no samushiro
If she should forget me not,
Would those oh so familiar sleeves, too,
Freeze solid?
In bed on a sleepless night
Frost forms on my chilly blankets…

Lord Sada’ie
1139

Right
分てこそ中より塵は積もりぬれ恋の病に沈むさ筵

wakete koso
naka yori chiri wa
tsumorinure
koi no yamai ni
shizumu samushiro
Split down
The middle, dust
Has piled up!
Sunk in the sickness
Of love upon this blanket!

Lord Takanobu
1140

Left and Right together state: we find no faults to mention.

In judgement: the conception of being lost in thought of another’s sleeves ‘in bed on a sleepless night frost forms on my chilly blankets’ (nenu yo no toko no shimo no samushiro) is certainly elegant. The scene in the Right’s poem, with the blanket divided in half, with one covered with dust, and the other where the speaker lies lovesick, is distasteful and I do not find it appealing, so thus, the Left wins.