Composed on the conception of the Song of the Everlasting Woe.
おもひかねわかれし野べをきてみればあさぢが原に秋かぜぞふく
omoFikane wakaresi nobe wo kitemireba asadi ga hara ni akikaze zo Fuku
Unable to bear my longing To the meadows where we parted Have I come and fixed my gaze, but Across the cogon grass upon the plain Indeed, the autumn wind is blowing.
The Gentlemen of the Right state: how can love be dangerous? The Gentlemen of the Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults to mention.
In judgement: saying that the ‘paths of love are, at the end’ (koiji no sue) dangerous is perfectly commonplace. ‘Is only a withered field of cogon grass’ (hito mo kareno no asajiwara) seems to simply have taken the poem ‘Sedge fields lie / Around the estate of Fushimi, / All long overgrown; / He who passed across them / Has left no tracks at all…’ and swapped in ‘mount who once did cross it’ (kayoishi koma). Changing a man into a mount is discomposing, indeed. Again, the Left should win.
Composed for a picture based on the Song of Everlasting Woe, for the scene where Xuanzong had returned home and the emperor was depicted weeping with insects calling from the withered cogon grass all around him.
ふるさとは浅茅が原と荒れはてて夜すがら虫の音をのみぞ鳴く
Furusato Fa
asadi ga Fara to
areFatete
yosugara musi no
ne nomi zo naku
My old home
With cogon grass is
Entirely overgrown;
All night the insects
Simply let forth their cries…
Both teams state they find no particular faults with the other’s poem this round.
Shunzei’s judgement: Both poems are on the topic of ‘falling leaves’, and both ‘The ever-falling leaves from the trees’ (himanaku furu wa ko no ha) and ‘Now the winds are done, fallen are’ (kaze yori furu wa), in conception and diction, are charming [kokoro kotoba tomo no okashiku kikoyu]. They must tie.