A poem by Ōtomo no sukune Yakamochi when he arrived at a maiden’s gate.
妹家之 門田乎見跡 打出来之 情毛知久 照月夜鴨
いもがいへの かどたをみむと うちいでこし こころもしるく てるつくよかも
| imo ga ipe no kadota wo mimu to uti’idekosi kokoro mo siruku teru tukuyo kamo | My darling’s house has Rice fields before its door—to see them Have I come, My heart brightened on A shining moonlit night! |
あきくともみどりのかへであらませばちらずぞあらましもみぢならねど
| aki ku tomo midori no kaede aramaseba chirazu zo aramashi momiji naranedo | Autumn comes, yet The maples in green Do display themselves, so I would you not scatter, For your leaves have not turned scarlet… |
65
しづはたにこひはすれどもこぬ人をまつむしのねぞあきはかなしき
| shizu wa ta ni koi wa suredomo konu hito o matsumushi no ne zo aki wa kanashiki | Peasants in the rice-fields Do fall in love, yet For a man who fails to come, I Pine crickets cries make Autumn all the more sad. |
66
Left (Tie).
稲妻の光にのみやなぐさめむ田中の里の夕闇の空
| inazuma no hikari ni nomi ya nagusamemu tanaka no sato no yūyami no sora |
Is it lightning’s Light alone, that Can console? Dwelling among the rice-fields Beneath the blackened evening sky. |
327
Right (Tie).
賤の男が山田の庵の苫を粗み漏る稲妻を友とこそ見れ
| shitsu no o ga yamada no io no toma o arami moru inazuma o tomo to koso mire |
A peasant in The mountain fields, whose hut has A rough roof of straw: The lightning dripping in Seems his single friend. |
328
As with the previous round, neither team can find fault with the other’s poem.
Shunzei, however, says, ‘The initial part of the Left’s poem is fine, indeed, but one wonders where the “dwelling among the rice fields” (tanaka no sato) is. I wonder whether nowadays poets can simply refer to a house among the rice fields. I do seem to have heard it before, but for the life of me I cannot remember where. As for the Right’s poem, this, too, has a perfectly standard beginning, but then has the expression “lightning dripping” (moru inazuma) – this seems rather new-fangled to me! Both poems are about the same.’