Round Eight

Left (Tie)

うづら鳴く遠里小野の小萩はら心なき身も過ぎうかりけり

uzura naku tōsato ono no kohagiwara kokoronaki mi mo sugi’ukarikeri

Quails cry from Tōsato plain’s Bush-clover groves— Even one as insensitive as I Finds it hard to pass them by.

Kenshō Sukenokimi
15

Right

あきの野の花に心をそめしよりくさかやひめもあはれとぞ思ふ

aki no no no hana ni kokoro o someshi yori kusakayahime mo aware to zo omou

Since the autumn meadows’ Blooms my heart Did fill, for Kusakayahime Fondness, I feel!

Tōren
16

As for the Left, if one is composing about bush-clover groves, then I would want the poem to mention Miyagi Plain. As for the Right’s Kusakayahime, I wondered if she appeared in the Chronicles of Japan, but in that work you have Izanagi-no-miko and Izanami-no-miko, who wed and create the first land, Akitsushima, and then many provinces, mountains, rivers and seas and thus trees and plants, too. It further states that the primordial tree was Kukunochi and the primordial plant was Kayanohime. The conception of the Right’s poem does not differ from this, yet it continues to mention Kusakayahime, which is unclear. I get the feeling that this poem was composed with the works composed for the banquet held for the completion of the Chronicles of Japan in mind, which refer to each and every spring and the ancient Kayanohime, but even these poems did not differ in conception from that of the main work. It’s impossible to pick a loser or winner.