utsuriyuku hana no shita michi ato mo nashi nagame mo shiroki haru no yamakaze
The shifting Blossom on the paths beneath Leaves no footprints there; My gaze with whiteness filled By spring’s breezes in the mountains.
Dōchin 23
Right (Win)
身にかへておもふもくるし桜花さかぬみ山に宿もとめてん
mi ni kaete omou mo kurushi sakurabana sakanu miyama ni yado mo tometen
It should be me instead, I think, but even that brings pain; Where cherry blossoms Fail to bloom, deep within the mountains Should I make my home.
Dharma Master Nyokan 24
The Left’s poem does not sound poor, but has ‘gaze with whiteness’—a long time ago, Lay Priest Toshinari repeatedly said that it is not appropriate to compose about looking at something specific using ‘gaze’. The initial and concluding section of the Right’s poem sound fine—it should win.
kyō yori wa natsu no koromo ni narinuredo kiru hito sae wa kawarazarikeri
From today Summer garb We have put on, yet The folk who wear it Have not changed at all.
Mitsune 42
‘The Right is uninteresting,’ so it lost.
[i] Minamoto no Masakata 源雅固 (dates unknown). A son of Minamoto no Sada’ari 源定有 (dates unknown), one of the sons of Emperor Montoku (827-858; r. 850-858).
