Round Thirty-Eight
Left
今更にふしもさだめぬ鹿の音よ木葉の数のつもるよごとに
| ima sara ni fushi mo sadamenu shika no ne yo ko no ha no kazu no tsumoru goto ni | At around this time, With his bedding undecided, The stag bells out! Just as the leaves’ from on the trees numbers Do mount up… |
Shō
75
Right (Win)
木葉ちる夜半の嵐の月影に心すみてや鹿も鳴くらん
| ko no ha chiru yowa no arashi no tsukikage ni kokoro sumite ya shika mo nakuran | Leaves scatter from the trees In the midnight storm In the moonlight From his wild and earthy thoughts Does the stag, too, cry out? |
Nagatsuna
76
The Left’s ‘just as the leaves from on the trees numbers do mount up’ at night and so forth, appears to be a novel style, yet the Right poem sounds more gorgeous, so it wins.
Round Nine
Left
すみのえのこほりとみゆる月かげにとけやしぬらむかみのこころも
| suminoe no kōri to miyuru tsukikage ni toke ya shinuramu kami no kokoro mo | At Suminoe As ice appears The moonlight, but Is not, perhaps, melted Even the deity’s heart? |
Lord Fujiwara no Kinshige
Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade
Without Office[1]
17
Right (Win)
すみよしのおまへのきしのまつのはもかずかくれなくみゆる月かげ
| sumiyoshi no omae no kishi no matsu no ha mo kazu kakurenaku miyuru tsukikage | At Sumiyoshi On the coast before the shrine Even the pine needles Cannot hide their numbers, Appearing in the moonlight. |
Venerable Dharma Eye Enjitsu[2]
18
While in the Left ‘ice appears’ and ‘is not, perhaps, melted’ seem to have some kind of linkage, if we consider this as a Cathay-style poem saying ‘A chill night’s moon / Ice atop the swell’, then I would have preferred it to say ‘is, perhaps, bound’. An alternative version of this would, of course, be ‘A spring morn’s breeze / Ice on the eastern shore’ which could lead to ‘is not, perhaps, melted’, I think. The Right has ‘On the coast before the shrine / Even the pine needles’ and through this type of linkage expresses the brightness of the moon. While this type of smug-sounding expression also appeared in the round before last, the moon here does seem bright and so I can say that the Right wins.
[1] San’i shōyon’ige Fujiwara ason Kinshige 散位正四位下藤原朝臣公重
[2] Hōgen kashōi Enjitsu 法眼和尚位円実
Round Ten
Left
をぐらやま下ゆく水のさざれ石も数かくれなくてらす月かげ
| ogurayama shita yuku mizu no sazare’ishi mo kazu kakurenaku terasu tsukikage | Beneath gloomy Mount Ogura Flow waters full Of pebbles, Unable to conceal their numbers In the shining moonlight. |
Lord Kiyosuke
67
Right (Win)
あまの川とわたる月の影すみてにごれるよともみえぬ空かな
| ama no kawa towataru tsuki no kage sumite nigoreru yo tomo mienu sora kana | Across the River of Heaven’s Mouth passes the moon’s Clear light— Even this cloudy world Does not appear so beneath this sky! |
Shinkaku
68
There’s nothing to mention about the Left, and the same is the case for the Right, but for some reason should it win?
Love without meeting
Left (Win)
あふことのかたきしなればしらなみのたちよるかずはわれのみぞしる
| au koto no katakishi nareba shiranami no tachiyoru kazu wa ware nomi zo shiru | Meeting you is A distant cliff, so The whitecaps’ Numbers breaking there I alone do know. |
21
Right
あはむとはおもひわたれどふじかはのすまずはつひにかげもみえじを
| awamu to wa omoi wataredo fujikawa no sumazu wa tsui ni kage mo mieji o | To meet her Passionately did I cross, yet The Fuji River Was so clouded that at the last Her shape I could not see at all… |
Mitsune
22
