Spring II: 10

Left (Tie).

煙立つ片山きゞす心せよ裾野の原に妻もこもれり

kemuri tatsu
katayama kigisu
kokoro seyo
susono no hara ni
tsuma mo komoreri
Smoke is rising
From the mountain slopes, O Pheasant,
Beware!
In the meadows on the mountain’s skirts,
Does your wife lie hidden…

Lord Ari’ie

79

Right (Tie).

燒捨てし枯野の跡やかすむらん煙にかへるきゞす鳴也

yaki suteshi
kareno no ato ya
kasumuran
kemuri ni kaeru
kigisu naku nari
Left to burn,
All sign of the sere fields
Seems lost in haze;
Returning to the smoke
A pheasant calls…

Ietaka

80

The Right have no particular remarks to make about the Left’s poem this round, while the Left say that they understand the general import of the Right’s poem, but are ‘unable to grasp’ the sense of ‘Returning to the smoke’ (kemuri ni kaeru) (that is, why a pheasant would do it).

Shunzei merely adds that ‘the smoke in both poems prevents one from seeing very far’, so there is no clear winner and the round must be a tie.

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