Lord Fujiwara no Noritada, Governor of Awa and Confucian Tutor to the Heir Apparent, was in high good humour and, thinking that he did not wish to idle away his hours at such a time of celebration,[i] gathered sundry folk of a poetic disposition, who thought only of the dew upon blades of grass, of the poems of ages past, each proceeding as knots on a bamboo stalk,[ii] as many and as indistinct as ears of rice in the autumn paddies. He hoped that his own innumerable words would be as strung gems passing into the world to come, yet it is also the case that they say ‘Traces will a thousand years’,[1] so praying that they would be transmitted into the future,[iii] he produced ten poetic topics, dividing his guests into Left and Right and, so that their words, which he had them compose with the strains of flute and zither in their ears, would be passed down to the future and not vanish like tracks of birds on the beach—for he worried that folk seeing them might feel that the poems of today’s folk seemed many as blades of grass in summer—he decided on winners and losers and, desiring to reveal the conception of the matter, he was able decide upon and compose himself ten poems as judgements: it appears he produced ten judgements in all—how wonderful that is!
[1] Letters. かひなしと思ひなけちそ水ぐきのあとぞ千とせのかたみともなる kai nashi to / omoi na kechi so / mizuguki no / ato zo chitose no / katami to mo naru ‘As pointless / O, don’t belittle me! / For these waterweed / Traces will a thousand years’ / Memento become!’ Anonymous (Kokin rokujō V: 3379)
[i] Wife of Heir Apparent give birth
[ii] A reference to the Kokinshu kana preface suguretaru hito mo, kureteke no, yoyo ni kikoete 優れたる人も、呉竹の、世世に聞こえて ‘…other superlative poets were heard each proceeding as knots on a bamboo stalk…’ (Kojima and Arai 1989, 12).
[iii] Kokinshū kana preface. 後の世にも伝はれとて nochi no yo ni mo tsutaware tote ‘…desiring that they be transmitted to the future…’ (Kojima and Arai 1989, 16).