That gaze of yours was you.

Because I really have no idea
about myself at all.

For example, when I was little, if someone said, 'That's so like Bon-chan,'
I would think, 'Oh, so this is what I'm like.'

There are times when someone else
discovers who I am.

That in itself is an amazing thing.

So, now that I'm an adult, when people on this note say,
'That's so like Zero-chan,'

I feel somehow happy.

I realize, oh, this is how so-and-so looked at me
and scooped me up.

Because that means they found me as I was passing by,
and have continued to cast their gaze upon me since then.

There is nothing luckier than that.

With that thought in mind, the theme for this Lilac Cup was

Becoming the me that is like me.

It was.

While I thought, 'What a lovely title,' I couldn't just be carefree about it
because this time I was asked to be a judge.

I was seriously nervous.

By the way, my younger brother has called me 'Maji' since I was a child.

Since it's Children's Day, I suddenly remembered that.

So, I tried my best.

There were 389 tanka poems.

Amazing!

This is just my personal opinion, but that is the volume
of a single collection of tanka.

There are also shorter tanka collections, but.

In that sense, I read everyone's work as if I were savoring the Manyoshu, turning the pages of a single poetry collection.

I don't know how to end the intro, so I'll just announce it now.

I'm always very bad at ranking things (even at work), but I have done so. Since you had made a table with the poems lined up, I selected the poems without knowing the names. These are tanka that I fell in love with at first sight, purely based on the poems themselves!

🥇 First Place

The perfect form of spring is your fingers dancing a minuet on the smartphone

It was love at first sight. Poems are sometimes about chance encounters. At first glance, I thought, 'I love this.' Watching a part of the body, the fingers, as if they were a seasonal feature within the season of spring. I felt a sense of allure in this gaze. By introducing a dance piece called a minuet into these 31 characters, a melody is born. This melody is truly the melody of spring. And every time I see someone moving their fingers on their smartphone like this, I feel like naming them 'minuets.' I still realize that poems that bring change to daily life are truly wonderful.

🥇 Second Place

Petals drifting high in the sky in the wind touch the soft earth for the first time

When I encountered this poem, I was thinking of falling cherry blossom petals. Among the many poems that entrust one's feelings to cherry blossoms, I felt this gaze was very gentle. I was struck with admiration by the gaze that could write that the petals, not knowing where they would land as they learn to fall for the first time, landed on soft earth. I thought that people who see this poem would feel a sense of generous hope somewhere. And since the freedom of the petals dancing in the wind is also sung about at the same time, I felt a pleasant breeze blowing through the poem.

🥇 Third Place

Cherry blossoms, falling with a thud like camellias, resting gently on my palm, still blooming

I was very drawn to the way akariko noticed that cherry blossoms fell with a thud, just like camellia petals. There are many ways to appreciate cherry blossoms, but the gaze that watches the trajectory of the falling petals is, I thought, purely gentle. And not only using that discovery as the subject of a poem, but the scene itself, where they seem to come back to life on the palm of the hand, resonated softly like a scene from spring. It is as if I have been shown a spring I have yet to see.

🥇 Fourth Place

Toes wet with morning dew, a flower missing a petal
lives out its day

I felt a fresh and gentle gaze in this poem as well. And the way you perceive time
is wonderful; the way you entrust the figure of living each day with care to the cherry blossom, as if changing the perception of time from a moment to eternity. The perspective that it is not just people who live out a day, but nature as well, is magnificent. A poem that truly draws close to a flower missing a single petal—I imagine anyone who reads it would feel a sense of salvation. I savored it as if tracing the theme of this time, that it would be good if I could also love my own missing pieces.

🥇 Fifth Place

The spring night moon wanes and waxes again
someone becomes a little happier

You depict spring, letting your thoughts wander to the waxing and waning of the moon. I felt poetry in this song.
Not just seeing the waxing and waning as a natural phenomenon, but
when it wanes and waxes, casting a gaze down to the earth and singing that someone becomes a little happier,
that part. I can picture a figure who is always wishing for someone else's happiness, and I felt that this is such a lovely poem that happiness might visit those who encounter it as well.
Thank you for such a romantic thought that will likely change how I look at the moon from now on. It made me think that I want to become gentle in this way.

🥇 Sixth Place

When I tried untangling the red thread caught in the dandelion fluff
it turned into the wind

From the moment this tanka, which feels like a world from a fairy tale, jumped into my eyes,
it was a poem that made me think I would want to teach it to my children if I had any.
To think that when you untangle the red thread caught in the fluffy gentleness of a dandelion, it suddenly blends into the wind. I thought it was a poem you could only encounter on the pages of a picture book.
I am very happy to have encountered a poem that let the reader play in a heart-enriching world by fully expanding the world of 31 characters.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award this time!
By receiving the happiness of encountering your poems,
I have also been given the hope that I can continue to expand my own world of tanka.
Thank you.

I am so sorry!
I have committed the blunder of not being in time for the announcement.
I apologize to everyone who was waiting.