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.