Round Sixteen

Left (Win)

よにすめど人しれぬみやしをりするみやまがくれのたにのしたみづ

yo ni sumedo hito shirenu mi ya shiorisuru miyamagakure no tani no shitamizu

Dwelling within this world, yet No one knows that ‘tis as if I Were marking a trail Hidden deep within the mountains To waters flowing on the valley floor…

Hiromori
131

Right

あしからむなにはのことはかねてよりちかくてまもれすみよしのかみ

ashikaramu naniwa no koto wa kanete yori chikakute mamore sumiyoshi no kami

Reaping reeds, should ill fortune come From Naniwa, in all things Just in case Ward me closely O, God of Sumiyoshi!

Dharma Master Chikyō

132

The poem of the Right here, while it does draw on ‘reaping reeds at Naniwa’, in its phrasing sounds prosaic. As the Left’s ‘waters flowing on the valley floor’ seems to flow smoothly off the tongue, it wins.