Left.
妻戀のやたけの雉心せよ通ふ裾野も人あさる也
| tsuma koi no yatake no kigisu kokoro seyo kayou susono mo hito asarunari |
Longing for your hen, O, peak-dwelling Pheasant, Take care! For in the meadows on the mountains’ skirts Folk are seeking you! |
83
Right (Win).
狩人の入野の雉妻戀て鳴ねばかりに身をやかへてん
| karibito no iruno no kigisu tsuma koite nakune bakari ni mi o ya kaeten |
Hunters Enter the meadows and, a pheasant, Longing for his hen, A single call Exchanges for his life. |
84
The Right state that the expression ‘peak-dwelling pheasant’ (yatake no kigisu) is ‘not one we’re familiar with’ [kikinarawazu], and question the use of ‘Folk are seeking’ (hito asaru) in the Left’s poem. (The standard expression would have been kigisu asaru (‘seeking pheasants’), and they are probably indicating some resistance to the Left’s unusual phrasing.) The Left, on the other hand, simply say that the Right’s poem ‘is satisfying’ [kanshin ari].
Shunzei’s judgement: The Right’s poem says ‘a single call’ (nakune bakari ni) will cost a the pheasant his life, but is a call really enough? When hunters enter a field, they have dogs to sniff out the pheasant’s scent, so he’d be caught whether he called or not. However, in the Left’s poem, ‘peak-dwelling’ (yatake) is pretentious [kotogotoshiku], and ‘folk are seeking’ (hito asaru) sounds dreadful [ito osoroshiku kikoyu]. Thus, in any case, the Right’s poem must win.