wa ga inoti wa
wosiku mo arazu
sani turau
kimi ni yorite zo
nagaku porisesi
My life
I do not regret, for
My ruddy-cheeked
Lord’s sake
I wanted it to be long…
Of the above poems, it is said, ‘Once there was a maiden. Her family name was Kurumamochiuji. Her husband went away and many years passed without his return. All that time, the maiden thought fondly of him, suffering, and eventually took to her bed, ill, wasted away day-by-day, and soon was close to death. Then she sent a messenger to her husband, asking him to return. After she did so, with tears streaming down her face, the maiden whispered these poems to herself, and finally died.’
The Right state: we cannot admire the Left’s poem. The Left state: in the Right’s poem ‘Has my very life at the hour of snake, its end’ (inochi sae mi no owari) sounds as if it is referring to two different matters.
In judgement: the Left’s poem simply says that after the hour of the snake comes the hour of the horse. It is unnecessary to say such things. The final line certainly seems to have nothing to do with anything. As for the fault of the Right’s poem, ‘life’ and ‘self’ have always had different meanings. Its first line, too, sounds elegant. Once more, the Right should win.