Round Eleven

Left

さをしかの空にあはれときこゆるは山のたかねになけばなりけり

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.