Left (Win).
いづ方へ羽かく鴫の立ちぬらんまだ明やらぬ霧の迷ひに
| izukata e hane kaku shigi no tachinuran mada akeyaranu kiri no mayoi ni |
From where is it that The snipes’ wing-beats Do come? With no daybreak yet, They are lost amidst the mists… |
405
Right.
ほのかにも鴫の羽音ぞ聞ゆなる殘ことなき秋の寢覺に
| honoka ni mo shigi no haoto zo kikoyunaru nokoro koto naki aki no nezame ni |
Faintly Snipes’ wing-beats Do I hear; A flurry of thoughts On waking in autumn… |
406
Neither Left nor Right has any criticisms to make this round.
Shunzei’s judgement: Although both poems seem without fault, ‘a flurry of thoughts’ (nokoru koto naki) suggests all the sorrows of autumn, but the initial part of the poem states that all the poet can hear is the snipes’ wing-beats – and nothing else – so there is a disagreement in what the poem is expressing. I do wonder about the initial line of the Left’s poem, but it should win.