tsuki kiyomi nagamuru hito no kokoro sae kumoi ni sumeru aki no yowa kana
The moon, so pure, that Gazing folk feel Their very hearts Clearly in the heavens On an autumn midnight!
Lord Shige’ie 49
Right
のこるべきかきねの雪は先消えてほかはつもるとみゆる月かな
nokorubeki kakine no yuki wa mazu kiete hoka wa tsumoru to miyuru tsuki kana
It should be lingering On my brushwood fence, but the snow First vanishes, then Piling up elsewhere Appears moonlight!
Lord Yorimasa 50
The Left seems extremely commonplace, and simply ending ‘autumn midnight’ feels incomplete. As for the Right, what does it mean to say that ‘the snow upon my brushwood fence first vanishes’? Might it mean that because of the fence’s shadow, the moon’s light cannot be seen? It really sounds as if the poet has gone too far in his quest for unusual expressions. Then there’s ‘piling up elsewhere’ along with ‘autumn midnight’—neither of these sound superior, so it’s impossible to say which poem is.
arashi fuku makuzu ga hara ni naku shika wa uramite nomi ya tsuma o kouran
Storm winds blow Across the arrowroot upon the plain Where bells a stag— Might it be with bitterness, alone, that He yearns for a mate?
Shun’e 47
Right
山里は妻こひかぬる鹿の音にさもあらぬ我もねられざりけり
yamazato wa tsuma koikanuru shika no ne ni sa mo aranu ware mo nerarezarikeri
In a mountain retreat, Filled with too much yearning for his mate A stag bells out— ‘Tis not true of me, yet Still I cannot sleep.
Lay Priest Master 48
The Left’s stag’s bell seeming to despise the arrowroot field and the Right’s inability to sleep on hearing a stag belling at a mountain retreat are both evocative of lonely sadness and neither sounds at all inferior to the other in the depths of the emotion they convey, so I find myself quite unable to distinguish between them.
saoshika no sora ni aware to kikoyuru wa yama no takane ni nakeba narikeri
A stag belling To the skies, sadly I hear— Perhaps, because ‘tis on the mountain’s peak He cries so…
Lord Masahira
45
Right (Win)
ゆふまぐれ霧のまがきのさびしさにをしか鳴くなり秋の山里
yūmagure kiri no magaki no sabishisa ni oshika nakunari aki no yamazato
Tangled in twilight With mist around my brushwood fence, Loneliness fills me, as A stag bells, by A mountain retreat in autumn
Shinkaku 46
What on earth is the conception of ‘sadly hearing something in the skies’? While no one can truly know why a stag bells, what is the point of saying that ‘sadness is in the skies’? And if one does hear it, it isn’t the case that anyone really knows that the stag is belling out of longing for his mate, is it. The stag seeming to bell by a brushwood fence in the mist, seems to sound a bit more moving at the moment.
yomosugara tsuma kouru ma ni saoshika no me sae awade ya naki’akasuran
All night long, Yearning for his mate, Does the stag Fail to close his eyes, Belling until the dawn?
Mikawa 43
Right
独のみみねのをしかのなくこゑにあはれ吹きそふ風の音かな
hitori nomi mine no oshika no naku koe ni aware fukisou kaze no oto kana
A single, solitary, Stag from the peak Belling out Laces sadness into the gusting Sound of the wind!
Kojijū 44
The Left’s ‘fail to close his eyes’ is a commonly utilised viewpoint, while the Right’s ‘lacing sadness into the gusts’ is unsatisfactory—simply ‘laced’ would be preferable. Nevertheless, neither of these are particularly significant faults, so these should tie.
akihagi o kusa no makura ni musubite ya tsuma koikanete shika no fusuran
The autumn bush clover For a grassy pillow Has he woven—is that why Unable to love his mate The stag seems to lie?
Koreyuki 41
Right
妻こふる秋にしなればさをしかの床の山とてうちもふされじ
tsuma kouru aki ni shi nareba saoshika no toko no yama tote uchi mo fusareji
He yearns for his mate In autumn, above all, so In the stag’s Bed among the mountains He cannot lay him down, it seems.
Arifusa 42
The Left isn’t bad, but isn’t there Controller Kore’ie’s poem:
秋萩を草の枕にむすぶ夜はちかくもしかのこゑをきくかな
akihagi o kusa no makura ni musubu yo wa chikaku mo shika no koe o kiku kana
The autumn bush clover For a grassy pillow I weave tonight— Close by, truly, a stag’s Bell I hear! [1]
While there is this earlier example, neither core nor the conceptions of these poems are the same, and as the Right’s poem is not all that good, after careful consideration I make this a tie.
[1] On hearing a stag at his lodgings. KYS (3) III: 224
yamakaze ni shioruru nobe no kusamura no neya samushi to ya shika no nakuran
The mountain wind Withers the meadow’s Clumps of grasses— Is it his chilly bedchamber That makes the stag cry out?
Moromitsu 39
Right (Win)
あはれとはねらふさつをも思ふらんをしか妻どふ秋の夕ぐれ
aware to wa nerau satsuo mo omouran oshika tsumadobu aki no yūgure
‘How sad,’ The aiming hunter, too, Seems to think, as The stag searches for his mate On an autumn evening…
Lay Priest Sanekiyo 40
The Left shows no technique from beginning to end, compounded by the fact that, while ‘although the stag does lie’ is a common expression in poetry, ‘bedchamber’ is something I am unaccustomed to hearing. As for the Right, ‘aiming hunter’ is distasteful to hear, but the poem is not bad overall, so it wins.
