tsure mo naki hito ni miseba ya hanasusuki uranaku kaze ni nabiku keshiki o
To that cruel Girl would I show The flowering silver grass, In the artless wind Inclining…
Lord Masakane, Controller and Head Chamberlain 27
Right
くる人も絶えぬる宿の糸すすきほに出て誰を招くなるらん
kuru hito mo taenuru yado no itosusuki ho ni idete tare o maneku naruran
His visits have Ceased to this house, so The slender silver grass Bursting into bud—who Might it be beckoning?
Tadasue 28
The Left’s poem, up to ‘would I show’ is poetic, but I do not feel that the expression ‘In the artless wind / Inclining’ is elegant. For the topic of love, it seems to me that both the beginning and the end of the poem is a slight case of ‘As a bamboo stalk / Has joints, from years gone by old-fashioned phrases’ lingering! The Right’s ‘Ceased to this house, so / The slender silver grass’ lacks anything remarkable about it, and seems excessively overgrown, so it’s impossible to decide on anyone as the winner or loser here.
hanasusuki tare tomo wakazu maneku ni mo kokoro o tomuru wa ya nani nari
The silver grass fronds Care not who They beckon, yet Entranced What am I to them them?
Lord Taira no Tsunemori, Assistant Master of the Dowager Empress’ Household 3
Right
あだにおく夜のまの露にむすぼほれて思ひしほるる女郎花かな
ada ni oku yo no ma no tsuyu ni musubōrete omoishioruru ominaeshi kana
Faithlessly falling In the night, the dewdrops Have drenched The dejected Maidenflower!
Former Minor Captain, Lord Fujiwara no Kinshige 4
This round the poems, again, are equal in quality, but the Right’s use of ‘dejected’ as a piece of diction is vague, and in the absence of a prior example of usage, the Left should win.
