Left
夏の日を暮らし侘びぬる蝉の まにわがなきそふるこゑはきこゆや[1]
natsu no hi o kurashiwabinuru semi no ma ni wa ga nakisouru koe wa kikoyu ya The summer sun They know not how to endure, So with the cicadas My sobbing Voice do you hear?
59
Right
恨みつつとどむる人のなければや山時鳥うかれでてなく
uramitsutsu todomuru hito no nakereba ya yama hototogisu ukaredete naku How I constantly despise The one who’s staying here If he were gone, would The mountain cuckoo Have aimlessly left his home to sing?
60
[1] The phrase semi no (‘the cicadas’) is missing from the text of the contest, but has been suggested by later scholarship.
Left (Win)
笛竹の聲のかぎりをつくしても猶憂きふしやよゝに殘らん
fuetake no
koe no kagiri o
tsukushitemo
nao ukifushi ya
yoyo ni nokoruran
My bamboo flute’s
Voice beyond its limits
Might I push, and yet
Still, would this sorrow
Remain – even to the world to come?
A Servant Girl
1091
Right
わが戀はまだ吹き馴れぬ横笛の音に立つれども逢かたもなし
wa ga koi wa
mada fukinarenu
yokobue no
ne ni tatsuredomo
au kata mo nashi
My love: like
An unpractised
Set of pipes
Gives out discordant sounds, yet
No chance is there to meet…
Lord Takanobu
1092
Left and Right together state: no faults.
In judgement: the Right’s pipes would seem to sound very youthful, indeed! As for the Left, although I feel I have heard such a conception before, because for the life of me I cannot recall where, the style seems tasteful. The Left wins.
春霞とひわけいぬる声聞きて狩衣なりとほかはいふらむ
Farugasumi
toFiwake inuru
kowe kikite
kariginu nari to
Foka Fa iFuramu
Through the haze of spring
Comes questioning
A voice I hear,
“In hunting garb,”
Seems the reply…
Ki no Tsurayuki
紀貫之
Left
鳴くになど驚かるらむ時鳥呼ぶ人毎にありと聞きつつ
naku ni nado
odorokaruramu
Fototogisu
yobu Fito goto ni
ari to kikitutu
Why does your song
Startle me so
O, cuckoo?
All the folk you call
Are there, do I ever hear…
5
Right (Win)
知らねども答へやせまし時鳥元つ人てふ声を哀れと
siranedomo
kotaFe ya semasi
Fototogisu
moto tu Fito teFu
kowe wo aFare to
I know it not, yet
I wonder will you reply,
O, cuckoo?
A familiar friend’s
Voice is moving, indeed.
6
'Simply moving and elegant'