samidare ni yasurau kure no hototogisu sonata no kumo ni koe na hedate so
In a summer shower, Hesitating, at twilight, O, cuckoo, Let not the intervening clouds Interrupt your song!
Shō 43
Right
過ぎぬなりさやはちぎりし時鳥なく音ばかりはこぞにかはらで
suginunari saya wa chigirishi hototogisu naku ne bakari wa kozo ni kawarade
And so you’ve flown by— Is that what you vowed, O, cuckoo? For only the sound of your song Is unchanged from the year before…
Nagatsuna 44
The Left’s poem doesn’t seem bad. The Right poem’s ‘For only the sound of your song is unchanged from the year before’ is somewhat difficult to grasp—if the cuckoo’s call has not changed, then what has? After all, cuckoos have ‘the voice of yesteryear’[1]—among other references—so it’s obvious that their calls don’t change, so the Left is somewhat better, I think.
kusamura no kokoro shi to tomo ni zo wataru kure wa shinubeki aki no oshisa ni
A tangled patch of grass is My heart—together Will it cross, and with The evening pass away Amid autumn regrets…[i]
23
Right (Win)
こりずまにあひもみるかな女郎花とまらずかへる秋としるらし
korizu ma ni ai mo miru kana ominaeshi tomarazu kaeru aki to shirurashi
While I do not dislike her, I will come to meet and see, My maidenflower! Not lingering, and returning Having had enough—as autumn seems to do, I know…
24
[i] The central part of this poem appears to have been corrupted as the division kokoro shi to tomo / ni zo wataru is anomalous as it places the bound morphemes ni zo at the beginning of a line. Given this, my translation is speculative.
The Right state: evening fortune-telling and crossroad divination are different things. The Left state: the Right’s poem has no faults.
In judgement: both evening fortune-telling and crossroad divination are conducted in the evening, and with either one could wish ‘Let it say, “Come with me!”’ (kon to tanomeyo), so this does not seem to be a mistake does it? The Right has the fault of having both ‘We will meet’ (au koto o) and ‘sunset bell, too’ (iriai no kane mo). The Left should win.
