Round Eleven
Tanabata
Left (Win)
七夕はたえぬ契りをうれしともこよひばかりやおもひしるらん
| tanabata wa taenu chigiri o ureshi tomo koyoi bakari ya omoishiruran | The Weaver Maid’s Unending vow is A source of joy, yet Is it only on this night That she truly feels it? |
Shun’e
21
Right
天の河わたるこよひや七夕は中中袖をぬらさざるらん
| ama no kawa wataru koyoi ya tanabata wa nakanaka sode o nurasazaruran | The River of Heaven Does she cross tonight, so The Weaver Maid Truly, her sleeves Dampens not, I think! |
Yorisuke
22
Plum
Round Three
Left (Tie)
あしがきのおくゆかしくもみゆるかな誰がすむ宿の梅の立えぞ
| ashigaki no oku yukashiku mo miyuru kana ta ga sumu yado no ume no tachie zo | A fence of reeds and Within, how charming They appear! Who is it dwells at this house of Beckoning branches of plum? |
Lord Kiyosuke
5
Right
ひばりあがる春の日ぐらし袖たれてかきねの梅の花みるわれは
| hibari agaru haru no higurashi sode tarete kakine no ume no hana miru ware wa | Skylarks soar In springtime all day long, Dangling my sleeves, upon The plum inside the lattice fence, At the blossom gaze I… |
Kenshō
6
The Left is in cliched style, while the final line of the Right is interrupted—a tie, I think.
Composed to accompany a picture on a folding screen of a traveller at the Bay of Tako, picking wisteria blooms.
たこのうらの岸の藤なみ立ちかへりをらではゆかじ袖はぬるとも
| tako no ura no kishi no fujinami tachikaeri orade wa yukaji sode wa nuru tomo | At the Bay of Tako Upon the shore wisteria waves Break, returning Never would I go without picking them Though it wet my sleeves. |
Round 5
Left (Win)
朝日影まだ出でやらぬ足引の山はかすみの色ぞうつろふ
| asahi kage mada ideyaranu ashihiki no yama wa kasumi no iro zo utsurou | The morning sunlight Has yet to fall upon The leg-wearying Mountains, yet the haze’s Hues are shifting. |
Takasuke, Gentleman-in-Waiting
9
Right
山姫のかすみのそでも紅に光そへたる朝日影かな
| yamahime no kasumi no sode mo kurenai ni hikari soetaru asahi kage kana | The mountain princess has Her sleeves of haze turned Scarlet Draped with light by The morning sunshine! |
Shimotsuke
10
The Left’s poem has no faults worth pointing out; the poem of the Right’s ‘morning sunlight draping scarlet light across the sleeves of haze’ is overly gorgeous, I think, while the Left seems perfectly beautiful, so it should win.
On the conception of forgotten love.
袖の露もあらぬ色にぞ消えかへるうつればかはるなげきせしまに
| sode no tsuyu mo aranu iro ni zo kiekaeru utsureba kawaru nagekiseshi ma ni | The dewdrops on my sleeves now Lack any hue at all Fading once more, Revealing the change To my lengthy sorrow…[1] |
The Senior Retired Emperor
[1] An allusive variation on: KKS II: 113; and Genji monogatari 463.
