ama tsu sora kumo no hatate ni midaretsutsu me mo aya nari ya asobu itoyū
In the heavenly skies The clouds’ edge is All a tangle; Have my eyes been deceived by The sporting heat haze?
His Excellency, Sueyoshi 520
Right
とがむべき人なきゐでのやまぶきをこころやすくやなみのをるらむ
togamubeki hito naki ide no yamabuki o kokoro yasuku ya nami no oruramu
Is it that to scold them Not a soul there is in Ide, that The kerria, Without a care, By the waves are plucked?
Tango 521
The conception of the Left’s ‘clouds’ edge is all a tangle; have my eyes been deceived’ is nothing less than an exemplary verse. The Right’s ‘in Ide that the kerria, without a care, by the waves are plucked’ also sounds charming, this round is another tie, isn’t it.
kyō made mo kozue wa fuyu no iro nagara kozo ni wa kawaru yuki no shitagusa
Until today The treetops winter’s Hues did hold, but With the change to the year before Grasses grow up ‘neath the snow.
Lord Yasusue 173
Right
くれはどりあやにながめのなりゆくかみどりの空にあそぶいとゆふ
kurehadori aya ni nagame no nariyuku ka midori no sora ni asobu itoyū
A chequered Pattern–when I gaze out how strange It becomes: In the verdant skies Sports heat haze…
The Minister of the Centre 174
Although it sounds a bit difficult to grasp the sense of the Left’s ‘grasses ‘neath the snow with the change to the year before’, there’s nothing wrong with composing about grasses growing beneath fallen snow, so the configuration is pleasant. The Right’s poem, too, has no faults to mention, so this round, too, should tie.
