秋をへてしのびもかねに物ぞおもふをのの山べのゆふぐれの空
aki o hete shinobi mo kane ni mono zo omou ono no yamabe no yūgure no sora | Passing through the autumn Unable to restrain My gloomy thoughts By the mount of Ono Beneath the evening sky. |


Bush clover at the roadside.
みちのべのをのの夕霧たちかへりみてこそゆかめ秋はぎの花
michi no be no ono no yūgiri tachikaeri mite koso yukame akihagi no hana | By the roadside Across the meadows evening mists Rise and fall endlessly; Thus would I go and see The autumn bush clover blooms.[1] |
[1] An allusive variation on: For a poetry competition held in the Tenryaku era. 春ふかみゐてのかは浪たちかへり見てこそゆかめ山吹の花 haru fukami / ide no kawanami / tachikaeri / mite koso yukame / yamabuki no hana ‘In the depths of spring / Waves on the river at Idé / Rise and fall endlessly; / Thus would I go and see / The kerria blooms…’ Minamoto no Shitagō (SIS I: 68).
Round Eight
Left (Tie)
うづら鳴く遠里小野の小萩はら心なき身も過ぎうかりけり
uzura naku tōsato ono no kohagiwara kokoronaki mi mo sugi’ukarikeri | Quails cry from Tōsato plain’s Bush-clover groves— Even one as insensitive as I Finds it hard to pass them by. |
Kenshō Sukenokimi
15
Right
あきの野の花に心をそめしよりくさかやひめもあはれとぞ思ふ
aki no no no hana ni kokoro o someshi yori kusakayahime mo aware to zo omou | Since the autumn meadows’ Blooms my heart Did fill, for Kusakayahime Fondness, I feel! |
Tōren
16
As for the Left, if one is composing about bush-clover groves, then I would want the poem to mention Miyagi Plain. As for the Right’s Kusakayahime, I wondered if she appeared in the Chronicles of Japan, but in that work you have Izanagi-no-miko and Izanami-no-miko, who wed and create the first land, Akitsushima, and then many provinces, mountains, rivers and seas and thus trees and plants, too. It further states that the primordial tree was Kukunochi and the primordial plant was Kayanohime. The conception of the Right’s poem does not differ from this, yet it continues to mention Kusakayahime, which is unclear. I get the feeling that this poem was composed with the works composed for the banquet held for the completion of the Chronicles of Japan in mind, which refer to each and every spring and the ancient Kayanohime, but even these poems did not differ in conception from that of the main work. It’s impossible to pick a loser or winner.
Round Two
Left
鶯は春をしりてもなきぬなる我が身は春をしらでこそなけ
uguisu wa haru o shiritemo nakinunaru wa ga mi wa haru o shirade koso nake | The warbler Knowing of the springtime Cries out, but My sorry self, of spring All unknowing, cries. |
Masashige
3
Right (Win)
杣人よをののおとしばしとどめなん谷の鶯はつねなくなり
somabito yo ono no oto shibashi todomenan tani no uguisu hatsune nakunari | O, woodcutter, Your axe’s sound, briefly Won’t you stop? For the warbler in the valley Has let out his first call… |
Kenshō
4
The Left’s poem, too, is smooth; the Right poem’s diction is halting, but its conception does not sound bad. It should win, I’d say.
Composed as an autumn poem.
ゆふさればをののあさぢふ玉ちりてこころくだくる風の音かな
yuFu sareba wono no asadiFu tama tirite kokoro kudakuru kaze no oto kana | When the evening comes All across the cogon-grass plain Scatter gemstones— Heart-tangling is The sound of wind! |
The Regent and Former Minister of the Right
Left (Win)
斧の柄を何かあやしと思けんしばしの恋も袖は朽ちけり
ono no e o nani ka ayashi to omoiken shibashi no koi mo sode wa kuchikeri | An axe haft – What is there strange in that I wonder? For with this brief love My sleeves have rotted… |
Kenshō
1183
Right
あさましや心をしほる山人も身におふ程の歎きをぞこる
asamashi ya kokoro o shioru yamabito mo mi ni ou hodo no nageki o zo koru | How surprising! Heartbroken A woodcutter, too, Is burdened by The tree of grief he fells… |
Lord Takanobu
1184
Left and Right together state: we find no faults to mention.
In judgement: For the Left, I wonder how long a ‘brief love’ (shibashi no koi) lasts? For one’s sleeves to have rotted, surely a certain amount of time must have passed, but in configuration the poem is certainly elegant. The Right’s woodcutter (yamabito) sounds like he is saying rather too much about himself. The Left should win.