うちわすれはかなくてのみすぐしきぬあはれとおもへ身につもるとし
| uchiwasure hakanakute nomi sugushikinu aware to omoe mi ni tsumoru toshi | I had forgotten Just how briefly All passes by— Pity me, I beg you, O, years piling upon me! |
396
Tag Archives: years
Kinkai wakashū 394
An old man feeling the sadness of the twilight of the year[i]
しらがといひおいぬるけにやことしあれば年のはやくもおもほゆるかな
| shiraga to ii oinuru ke ni ya koto shi areba toshi no hayaku mo omohoyuru kana | Is it my hair so white That means I have grown old? But now in everything That the years go by so fast, I feel! |
394
Kinkai wakashū 393
Kinkai wakashū 379
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 65
Round Fifteen
Left
わかのうらとおもふばかりをたのみにてやどもさだめぬあまのこぞうき
| waka no ura to omou bakari o tanomi nite yado mo sadamenu ama no ko zo uki | At Waka Bay, for my youth Simply do I long; Relying on A homeless Son of fisherfolk is sad, indeed. |
Kyō
129
Right (Win)
すみよしのまつことなくていたづらにとしはつもりのうらみをぞする
| sumiyoshi no matsu koto nakute itazura ni toshi wa tsumori no urami o zo suru | At Sumiyoshi Pine I do not, but How quickly The years have laid Their despite upon me! |
Suehiro
130
The Left, while it does sound truly pitiful, truly could have had something in mind as an outcome of youth at Waka Bay. As for the Right, simply that ‘The years have laid / Their despite’ without pining, I know only too well, so I can say that the Right wins.
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 60
Round Ten
Left (Win)
かぞふればやとせへにけりあはれわがしづみしことはきのふとおもふに
| kasoureba yatose henikeri aware wa ga shizumishi koto wa kinō to omou ni | When I count them up, Many years have passed, but Sadness Overcomes me for the events Of yesterday, I feel… |
Lord Sanesada
119
Right
いたづらにふりぬるみをもすみよしのまつはさりともあはれしるらむ
| itazura ni furinuru mi o mo sumiyoshi no matsu wa sari tomo aware shiruramu | How quickly Age has come upon my flesh, too— Sumiyoshi’s Pines must that Sadness know too well… |
Lord Toshinari
120
The poem of the Left: these are not matters which could be understood by just anyone, yet even a superficial glance at it reveals that its conception and configuration display and exceptional sadness. How true it is that off all the myriad things in our lives it is the events of yesterday and today that we recall, and this is how we pass through the years and months, so how difficult, indeed, it is to supress the configuration of ‘When I count them up, / Many years have passed’! As for the Right’s poem, well, the conception of the initial section is pedestrian at best, although the latter section does seem to have some conception to it in places and shows some signs of thought. It is the poor composition of the judge, who is into his dotage. Once more, therefore, I have not rendered judgement, however, I feel that the deity would determine in favour of the Left.
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 58
Round Eight
Left
よのなかをうみわたりつつとしへぬることはつもりのかみやたすけむ
| yo no naka o umiwataritsutsu toshi henuru koto wa tsumori no kami ya tasukemu | In this mundane world, An endless sea of suffering, Have my years gone by; Might Tsumori’s Deity save me, I wonder? |
Dharma Master Shun’e
115
Right (Win)
いへのかぜわがみのうへにすずしかれかみのしるしをあふぐとならば
| ie no kaze wa ga mi no ue ni suzushikare kami no shirushi o augu to naraba | My house’s breeze of fortune To my sorry self I would bring cool, if For a sign from the God I were to seek… |
Lord Sanekuni
116
The Left’s conception is charming, beginning with ‘An endless sea of suffering’ and following this with ‘Might Tsumori’s / Deity save me, I wonder?’, but ‘endless sea of suffering’ does not sound like acceptable diction. The Right’s conception of ‘For a sign from the God / I were to seek’ sounds charming, so I make it the winner.
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 52
Round Two
Left (Tie)
すみよしときこゆるさとにいとはずはおきどころなきみをやどさばや
| sumiyoshi to kikoyuru sato ni itowazu wa okidokoro naki mi o yadosaba ya | A pleasant place to live is Sumiyoshi’s Estate, or so I’ve heard, but If it provide no comfort, then My restless Self might it attract… |
Lord Kinshige
103
Right
すぎていにしあきにおくれてしもがるるきくやわがみのたぐひなるらむ
| sugite inishi aki ni okurete shimogaruru kiku ya wa ga mi no tagui naruramu | Past and gone is Autumn, but lingering, Frost-burned Chrysanthemums—is my sorry self Just like them, I wonder? |
Enjitsu
104
Neither the poem of the Left, nor of the Right, sound as if they have any particular faults. Nevertheless, in the case of such poems the assessment varies depending upon the speaker. While the poem of the Left is, indeed, pitiful, it also sounds a bit crude. It would be elegant, I think, if it were a woman’s poem. As for the Right’s poem, if we take it as an expression of grief over orphanhood, then in the final analysis it’s charming as it matches the conception of a scion of a noble house picturing himself as the monarch of the flowers. Then again, we do have the poem by the Enkyū Third Prince:
うゑおきしきみもなきよにとしへたる花は我が身のここちこそすれ
| ueokishi kimi mo naki yo ni toshi hetaru hana wa wa ga mi no kokochi koso sure | You planted them here, My Lord, though gone from this world, These many years past— The flowers and my sorry self Both feel the same…[1] |
This would seem to be in the same vein. Given that the speaker of both poems is unclear, for the moment, these tie.
[1] Composed when viewing the blossom at the Enshūji and recalling former Emperor Gosanjō (KYS IX: 518).
Kinkai wakashū 274
Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 23
Left (Tie)
すみよしのきしうつなみにてる月はこかげもあかしまつのむらだち
| sumiyoshi no kishi utsu nami ni teru tsuki wa kokage mo akashi matsu no muradachi | At Sumiyoshi Upon the waves, striking the shore, Shines the moon— The shadows of the trees are bright Among the crowding pines. |
Chūnagon, in service to the Former Ise Virgin[1]
45
Right
としふりてかみさびにけるすみのえのきしのたまもをみがく月かげ
| toshi furite kamisabinikeru suminoe no kishi no tamamo o migaku tsukikage | Ancient in years is The dread Suminoe Shore, where gemweed Is polished by the moonlight. |
Novice Sokaku[2]
46
The Left’s poem has a truly charming conception, with ‘Upon the waves, striking the shore, / Shines the moon’ reflecting and making the pines’ shadows shine. However, what are we to make of the use of ‘bright’ here? My late master once stated that he had too often heard such diction being used. The poem of the right appears to have pleasant configuration and diction, but, while it is only natural to say that the Suminoe’s shore is dread, I wonder about the appropriateness of going so far as to say that gemweed is? It’s going a bit far, I think, to bring in ‘gemweed’ simply to link it to ‘polish’. Nevertheless, the configuration of the poem appears pleasant, so I call this a tie.
[1] Zen-saigū no Chūnagon前斎宮中納言
[2] Shami Sokaku沙弥素覚