Left (Tie)
あきの夜は雲もこころやありあけのかたぶくまでもすめる月かな
| aki no yo wa kumo mo kokoro ya ariake no katabuku made mo sumeru tsuki kana | On an autumn night Do the clouds, too, have feelings? Until at dawn Sets The moon, so clear? |
Lord Takanobu
1427
Right
月見ばとたのめかおきし人はこであさぢが露にまつむしぞなく
| tsuki miba to tanome’okishi hito wa kode asaji ga tsuyu ni matsumushi zo naku | ‘When we see the moon…’ Did he promise, before, but That man has failed to come, and From the dewy cogon grass The pine crickets cry! |
Lord Ietaka
1428
Judgement:
日かずへぬとやまのつゆにしをるそできつつなれこしから衣かは
| hikazu henu toyama no tsuyu ni shioru sode kitsutsunarekoshi karakoromo ka wa | Days have passed, and The familiar mountains’ dew Weighs down my sleeves, So used am I to wearing A Cathay robe, no doubt! |
Round Five
Fresh bracken
Left
かりびとのとやまをこめてやきしよりしたもえいづるのべのさわらび
| karibito no toyama o komete yakishi yori shita moe’izuru nobe no sawarabi | Since hunters All the nearby mountains Have burned Budding beneath is Fresh bracken in the meadows. |
Sagami
9
Right (Win)
花をだにをりてかへらんさわらびはをぎのやけのにいまぞおひいづる
| hana o dani orite kaeran sawarabi wa ogi no yakeno ni ima zo oi’izuru | At least some blossom Let us pick and then return! Fresh bracken On the burned plain of cogon grass Is now a’sprouting! |
Jijū no menoto
10
‘Fresh bracken’ is something which folk of old referred to in various ways, and the latter poem is in keeping with this. ‘At least some blossom / Let us pick and then return!’ is an extremely charming mental image, if one had simply seen it budding, one would wonder why the poet has not sought out some other location before returning home. Moving on to ‘Since hunters / All the nearby mountains’, this is an overly hackneyed, and thus distasteful, expression like ‘on eastern roads’, so the latter poem is superior, isn’t it.
旅ねするいせの浜をぎつゆながらむすぶ枕にやどる月かげ
| tabinesuru ise no hamaogi tsuyu nagara musubu makura ni yadoru tsukikage | Sleeping on my travels, with Cogon grass from the shore at Ise, Dew covered, Woven for my pillow, Moonlight’s lodging.[i] |
568
[i] See: 神風之 伊勢乃浜荻 折伏 客宿也将為 荒浜辺尓 kamukaze no/ ise no hamaogi / orifusete / tabine ya suramu / araki hamabe ni ‘Divine winds blow / Cogon grass on the shore at Ise / I weave and lay me down— / Should I doze upon my travels? / On this wild beachside…’ (Man’yōshū IV: 500).
