Round Twelve

Left (Tie)

すみのぼる月のひかりにみがかれてくもりも見えずたまつしまひめ

suminoboru tsuki no hikari ni migakurete kumori mo miezu tamatsu shimahime

Climbing clearly The moon’s light Polishes, so that No clouds appear above The divine Princess of Tamatsu Isle!

Lord Fujiwara no Suetsune
Assistant Master of the Empress Household Office
Exalted Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade[1]
23

Right

すみよしのまつのこずゑにいる月はしづえのひまぞなほまたれける

sumiyoshi no matsu no kozue ni iru tsuki wa shizue no hima zo nao matarekeru

At Sumiyoshi Into the treetops of the pines Has sunk the moon— The gaps ‘tween the lower boughs Will ever be awaited!

Lord Fujiwara no Takanobu
Supernumerary Director of the Bureau of Horses, Right Division
Exalted Junior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade[2]
24

The conception of the Left’s poem of the moon’s light polishing Tamatsu Isle appears charming, but it would have been preferable to stop with ‘No clouds appear above / Tamatsu Isle’. Even though the poem wishes to say that ‘no clouds appear above’ her, the final use of ‘princess’ is a bit critical [for a poem mentioning a deity], isn’t it? As for the Right’s poem, while it does seem to have been composed with some attempt at conception, saying ‘Into the treetops of the pines / Has sunk the moon’ makes it sound as if the light can sink there, but this is what happens at the mountains’ edge, I feel. Thus, here we do have a reference to the moon over this particular shrine, while the Left is based on a reference to the Deity of Tamatsu Isle, and as both of these places are splendid, I hesitate to award a win or a loss and thus, once more, the round ties.

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[1] Shōyon’ige-gyō chūgū no suke Fujiwara ason Suetsune正四位下行中宮亮藤原朝臣季経

[2] Jūgoijō-gyō uma no gonkami Fujiwara ason Takanobu 従五位上行右馬権頭藤原朝臣隆信