Tag Archives: yūgure

Autumn I: 5

Left.

秋來ても猶夕風を松が根に夏を忘れし陰ぞたち憂き

aki kitemo
nao yū kaze wo
matsu ga ne ni
natsu o wasureshi
kage zo tachi uki
Though the autumn has come,
Still, for an evening breeze,
Must I abide beneath the pines,
As did I to forget the summer,
Loath to leave the shade…

Lord Sada’ie.

309

Right.

夏衣まだ脱ぎやらぬ夕暮は袖に待たるゝ萩の上風

natsukoromo
mada nugiyaranu
yūgure wa
sode ni mataruru
hagi no uwakaze
My summer garb
Have I not yet put away;
In the evening
My sleeves await
A breeze over the bush-clover.

Jakuren.

310

Neither team can find any fault with the other’s poem.

Shunzei, however, says, ‘With regard to the Right’s poem, one marks the change of clothing at the end of spring into summer, and the passage from autumn and the entrance to winter. Does one say that now it is autumn, one changes from summer clothes? The Left’s ‘beneath the pines’ must win, must it not?’

Summer II: 30

Left (Win).

鳴蝉の羽に置く露に秋かけて木陰涼しき夕暮の聲

naru semi no
ha ni oku tsuyu ni
aki kakete
kokage suzushiki
yūkure no koe
Upon the singing cicadas’
Wings fall dewdrops,
Heralding autumn;
Cool, and shaded by the trees
Are their evening songs…

A Servant Girl.

299

Right.

夏深き杜の梢にかねてより秋をかなしむ蝉の聲かな

natsu fukaki
mori no kozue ni
kanete yori
aki o kanashimu
semi no koe kana
In the depths of summer
From the forest treetops,
Long before
Autumn, in sadness
Do the cicadas sing.

Jakuren.

300

Neither Left nor Right can find fault with the other’s poem this round.

Shunzei states, ‘It is rather difficult to know a cicada’s mind – as to whether or not it is mourning the coming of autumn long before it arrives. The Left’s “Wings fall dewdrops, heralding autumn” (ha ni oku tsuyu ni aki kakete), is particularly delicate in expression and charming. It must win.’

Spring III: 3

Left.

夕暮に思へばけさの朝霞夜をへだてたる心地こそすれ

yūgure ni
omoeba kesa no
asa kasumi
yo o hedatetaru
kokochi koso sure
In the evening
Pondering on the morn’s
Morning mist:
That a night does stand between,
The feeling strikes me strongly.

Lord Ari’ie.

125

Right (Win).

かくしつゝつもればおしき春の日をのどけき物と何思らむ

kakushitsutsu
tsumoreba oshiki
haru no hi o
nodokeki mono to
nani omouramu
Doing this and that
Time passes, so I should regret
These days of spring,
Spent in peaceful
Thought – and for what!

Lord Takanobu.

126

Neither team has any comments to make about the other’s poem this round.

Shunzei states, ‘The Left seem to touch on the topic of the round only distantly, while the Right’s ‘Time passes, so I should regret’ (tsumoreba oshiki) appears particularly splendid. It must be the winner.

Spring II: 16

Left (Win).

片岡の霞も深き木隱れに朝日待つまの雲雀鳴くなり

kataoka no
kasumi mo fukaki
kogakure ni
asahi matsu ma no
hibari nakunari
At Kataoka
The haze is deep upon
The shade of the concealing trees;
Awaiting dawn’s first light,
A skylark sings.

A Servant Girl.

91

Right.

野邊見ればあがる雲雀も今はとて淺茅に落つる夕暮の空

nobe mireba
agaru hibari mo
ima wa tote
asaji ni otsuru
yūgure no sora
Looking out across the plain,
A soaring skylark
Seizes the second
To plunge among the cogon-grass
From the evening sky.

Ietaka.

92

Neither team has any criticisms to make of the other’s poem.

Shunzei states that, ‘Left and Right deal with the skylark at morning and evening respectively. Both poems are alike in content, yet the Right’s poem conveys a particularly desolate feeling. Why should this be? Once more, the Left is the victor.’ Commentators are divided as to whether in this judgement he is suggesting that loneliness is an inappropriate emotion to convey in a skylark-themed poem, or whether, knowing that the Left’s poem was composed by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, the host of the competition and the highest-ranking person present, he is simply flattering a powerful man’s work.

Spring II: 13

Left (Win).

末遠き若葉の芝生うちなびき雲雀鳴野の春の夕暮

sue tōki
wakaba no shibafu
uchinabiki
hibari naku no no
haru no yūgure
To the distance far
The growing greensward
Stretches;
Skylarks singing o’er the plain
In the springtime evening.

Lord Sada’ie

85

Right.

雲に入るそなたの聲をながむれば雲雀落ち來る明ぼのゝ空

kumo ni iru
sonata no koe no
nagamureba
hibari ochikuru
akebono no sora
From within the clouds
Comes song: thither
Staring,
Skylarks swooping
Through the skies at dawn.

Lord Takanobu.

86

The Right team question what it is that the greensward ‘streams’ (nabiku) towards, while the Left say that starting with ‘within the clouds’ (kumo ni iru) is ‘somewhat abrupt’.

Shunzei comments of the Right’s question, ‘whatever it streams towards, in truth, from point of view of form, it should not stream at all,’ meaning that there’s no need to use the expression at all in the poem. As for the Right’s poem, somewhat facetiously, he says, ‘what is “within the clouds” is, most likely a ball, and while gazing “thither at their song”, one would think that, no doubt, the skylark, too, would soon come swooping down, but one would have to stop staring in order to catch it!’ In addition, ‘wouldn’t it be to dark at dawn to distinguish a skylark?’ So, ‘Skylarks singing o’er the plain/In the springtime evening’ should be the winner.

Miscellaneous 92

Left (Tie).

和歌の浦やなぎたる朝のみをつくし朽ちねかひなき名だに殘らで

waka no ura
yanagitaru asa no
miotsukushi
kuchine kainaki
na dani nokorade
At Waka Bay
In the calm of morning,
The channel buoys stand: exhausted
I crumble, not even my useless
Name remaining to me.

183

Right (Tie).

思ひかね我夕暮の秋の日に三笠の山はさしはなれにき

omoikane
ware yūgure no
aki no hi ni
mikasa no yama wa
sashihanareniki
I cannot think on it more:
Here, in my evening,
Autumn days,
Mikasa Mountain is
Far away, indeed…

184

Miscellaneous 82

Left (Tie).

いく世へぬかざし折けんいにしへに三輪の檜原の苔の通路

ikuyo henu
kazashi oriken
inishie ni
miwa no hihara no
koke no kayoiji
How many ages passed?
Twigs plucked and placed in hair,
Long ago
In Miwa’s cypress groves,
Along the moss-covered paths…

163

Right

見ずしらずうづもれぬ名の跡やこれたなびき渡る夕暮の雲

mizu shirazu
uzumorenu na no
ato ya kore
tanabiki wataru
yūgure no sora
Unseen, unknown,
Of an everlasting name
This the only trace,
Trailing across
The evening sky?

164