Round Eleven: The scent of blossom in the fields at dusk

Left

宮木野や尋ねてきつる藤ばかましるくもにほふゆふまぐれかな

miyagino ya tazunetekitsuru fujibakama shiruku mo niou yū magure kana

To Miyagi Plain Have come visiting The asters? So startling their scent In the twilight dusk!

Ōe no Masasuke, Student of Law[1]
21

Right

今よりはいそぎもゆかじ入日さす野山の花ぞ匂ひましける

ima yori wa isogi mo yukaji irihi sasu noyama no hana zo nioimashikeru

More than this moment There seems no purpose in haste, as The setting sun shines The blossom in the mountain meadows Has a scent sublime.

Lord Tadamoto
22

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[1] Ōe no Masasuke 大江盛佐. The identity of this individual remains uncertain, as he does not appear in the genealogy of the Ōe family. There was, however, a Fujiwara no Masasuke 藤原盛佐, who was appointed to the position of Senior Secretary of the Echizen province on the 23^rd day of the First Month Kōji 康治 1 [10.2.1142], some forty years after this contest was held. The title used for Masasuke here, Student of Law (myōbōshō 明法生) indicates that he was enrolled in the Law department of the imperial university (daigakuryō 大学寮) at the time, and so would have been a young man. It is possible that for a minor noble it could take decades to gain an appointment to a provincial administration, so it is possible that this is Fujiwara no Masasuke, but this remains speculation. In any case this is his sole poem in a poetry competition.