Thomas McAuley
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wakapoet.bsky.social
Thomas McAuley
@wakapoet.bsky.social
39 followers 20 following 820 posts
Translator of premodern Japanese poetry.
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The poem of the Right begins with ‘The years have piled up; on Tsumori / Shore grow’ and continues with ‘Pines – my sorry self, indeed’ which appears very pleasant. Thus, the Right wins.
The poem of the Left has a configuration which directly expresses a single emotion. Its conception sounds in keeping with this.
Right (Win)

いたづらにとしもつもりのうらにおふるまつぞわがみのたぐひなりける

How quickly
The years have piled up; on Tsumori
Shore grow
Pines – my sorry self, indeed,
Do they resemble!

Lord Yorimasa
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 118
Left

いとふともなきものゆゑによのなかのあはれをさすがうちなげきつつ

With despite
I regard it not, yet
This mundane world
Has such sadness, that
Ever am I grief-stricken…

Lord Sanefusa
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 117
From among my love poems

おきつ島うのすむ石による波のまなく物おもふわれぞかなしき

On the offshore islands
Cormorants dwell upon the rocks
Washed by waves
Unendingly in gloomy thought
I am sad, indeed!

Kinkai wakashū 444
#wakapoem #wakapoetry #poem #love #Japan #lovepoem #和歌 #恋 #恋歌
The Right’s conception of ‘For a sign from the God / I were to seek’ sounds charming, so I make it the winner.
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.
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

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
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 116
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

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
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 115
From among my love poems

あし鴨のさわぐ入江の浮草のうきてや物をおもひわたらん

Among the reed-beds, the ducks
Are noisy in the inlet, filled with
Drifting duckweed, as
Depressed my gloomy
Thoughts seem to go ever on.

Kinkai wakashū 443
#wakapoem #wakapoetry #poem #love #Japan #lovepoem #和歌 #恋 #恋歌
The line of geese in the autumn appears unmistakably to refer to the ordering of brothers—perhaps that order has been disrupted? If so, this, too, is extremely charming. To the extent that these, too, express the writer’s troubles, for the moment, I make them a tie.
...—to hear a man recollecting this and asking ‘where have my glory days gone’—speaking of such things sounds charming, in the end. Truly charming. The poem of the Right finds fault with ‘What has happened, that /My brothers, one and all’ and the poet says ‘How I envy / The cries of autumn geese’.
This is certainly something to resent and yet, in his glory days he was a man of high renown, or someone with great responsibilities among lower officialdom, or even in the Inner Palace Guards or Great Council of State...
Both of these poems of the Left and Right are, once again, suited to their poets. The Left appears to have a charming conception, looking back on more prosperous times which have now gone—just as anyone would.
Right

いかなればわがひとつらのかかるらむうらやましきはあきのかりがね

What has happened, that
My brothers, one and all,
Should go so far?
How I envy
The cries of autumn geese…

Lord Sanetsuna
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 114
Left (Tie)

わがさかりやよいづかたへゆきにけむしらぬおきなにみをばゆづりて

My glory days,
O, where have they
Gone?
An unfamiliar old man
Has taken my place…

Lord Kiyosuke
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 113
From among my love poems

しらま弓いそべの山の松の色のときはにものをおもふころかな

The pure white bow of
Mountains by the rocky shore, where
The pines’ hues are
Evergreen but more so my gloomy
Thoughts of you!

Kinkai wakashū 442
#wakapoem #wakapoetry #poem #love #Japan #lovepoem #和歌 #恋 #恋歌
The configuration of the Right poem’s ‘Should I sink into the depths?’ is not particularly elegant, yet placing ‘Pitiful am I—a floating duckweed’ first and then following this with ‘Should I sink into the depths?’ is charming, I have to say. The Right should win.
The Left’s poem expresses grief over the nature of the mundane world and finds a reason for this in the realisation that all is lost within a fleeting dream.
Right (Win)

かずならぬみをうきくさとおもへどもなぞよとともにしづむなるらむ

Not even numbered among folk, so
Pitiful am I—a floating duckweed
Am I, I feel yet,
Why, over such a time
Should I sink into the depths?

Lord Morikata
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 112
Left

なにごとをあけぬくれぬといそぐらむはかなきゆめのよとはしるしる

What is it that makes
Dawn and dusk
Come so fast?
A fleeting dream is
This world—that I know so well.

Lord Shigenori
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 111
From among my love poems

おく山のすゑのたつきもいさしらず妹にあはずて年のへゆけば

Deep within the mountains’
End stand trees—of them, too,
What’s to become, I know not, for
I cannot meet my darling, and
The years drag on…

Kinkai wakashū 441
#wakapoem #wakapoetry #poem #love #Japan #lovepoem #和歌 #恋 #恋歌
For the Right, the tone of ‘How can I all the cruelties’ also seems pleasant, but still, I make the Left the winner.
The Left’s configuration and conception are truly charming. The writer is troubled, isn’t he! In particular, the configuration of ‘As a man would such gloomy / Thoughts still fill me?’ sounds especially pleasant.
Right

ありてこそあらぬすがたになりもせめうしとていかがみをばなぐべき

I live on, so
My former state
I have abandoned;
How can I all the cruelties
Cast from my flesh?

Atsuyori
Sumiyoshi-sha uta'awase 110