Topic unknown.
花すすき草のたもとをかりぞなくなみだの露やおき所なき
| hanasusuki kusa no tamoto o kari zo naku namida no tsuyu ya okidokoro naki | The flowering miscanthus Grass cuffs Reaped and wept Tears of dew Have no place to fall.[i] |
Consultant Masatsune
[i] An allusive variation on KKS IV: 243.
Left (Tie).
尋ても逢はずは憂さやまさりなん心づくしに生の松原
| tazunete mo awazu wa usa ya masarinan kokoro zukushi ni iki no matsubara |
Paying a visit and Not meeting: the despair Reaches new heights, Exhausting my heart, as a journey to Iki in Matsubara! |
653
Right.
行逢はん契も知らず花薄ほの見し野邊に迷ひぬる哉
| yukiawan chigiri mo shirazu hana sususki hono mishi nobe ni mayoinuru kana |
Go, and I will meet her! Heedless of if such a bond exists, The miscanthus fronds Briefly glimpsed across the fields, Drive me to confusion! |
654
The Gentlemen of the Left and Right state the opposing team’s poem lacks thought.
Shunzei’s judgement: The Left draws excessively on conceits of Kyushu. In the Right’s poem, ‘confusion in the fields’ (nobe no mayoi) does not seem to lead anywhere. Both of these poems lack any real conception other than their use of conceits. The round ties.
eft (Tie).
雪消ゆる枯野の下の淺緑去年の草葉や根にかへるらん
| yuki kiyuru kareno no shita no asamidori kozo no kusaba ya ne ni kaeruran |
The snows are gone from off The sere fields, and beneath, Pale green: Last year’s growth seems To have returned to its roots… |
47
Right (Tie).
春雨は去年見し野邊のしるべかは緑にかへる荻の燒原
| harusame wa kozo mishi nobe no shirube ka wa midori ni kaeru ogi no yakehara |
The gentle rains of spring: To the fields I gazed upon last year Do they show the way? For greeness has returned, To the burnt miscanthus grass… |
48
Both teams state that the other’s poem was ‘in the same vein’.
Shunzei judges that the Left’s ‘Last year’s growth seems/To have returned to its roots’ and the Right’s ‘For greeness has returned,/To the burnt miscanthus grass’ are ‘pleasantly charming’, so neither poem can be adjudged the winner.
Left.
神無月くれやすき日の色なれば霜の下葉に風もたまらず
| kaminazuki kureyasuki hi no iro nareba shimo no shitaba ni kaze mo tamarazu |
In the Godless Month The swiftly setting sun’s Shade is such That on the frosted under-leaves The wind rests not at all. |
83
Right (Win)
花すゝき草のたもとも朽はてぬ馴てわかれし秋をこふとて
| hana susuki kusa no tamoto no kuchihatenu narete wakareshi aki o kou tote |
The miscanthus blooms, Those grassy cuffs, Have withered all away; Parted from accustomed Autumn: that was all their longing… |
84
霜枯は尾花踏み分行く鹿の聲こそ聞かぬ跡は見えけり
| shimogare wa obana fumiwake yuku shika no koe koso kikanu ato wa miekeri |
Frost-seared Miscanthus grass, pushed aside by A stag: I cannot hear his call, yet Here are his tracks. |
Her reply:
いづかたにありと聞かばか花すゝきはかなき空を招きたてらん
| idu kata ni ari to kikaba Fana susuki Fakanaki sora wo maneki tateran |
Which way were you To be found? Did they but know The stalks of miscanthus grass Would to the vacant sky Stand beckoning! |
When she has gone out flower-viewing in the autumn fields, a man:
秋の野にいでぬとならば花薄しのびにわれを招きやはせぬ
| aki no no ni idenu to naraba Fana susuki sinobi ni ware wo maneki ya Fa senu |
If to the autumn fields You have gone, As the stalks of miscanthus grass Secretly, to me Will you not beckon? |
