Left (Win).

霜枯るゝ野原に秋の忍はれて心のうちに鹿ぞ鳴ぬる

shimo karuru nohara ni aki no shinobarete kokoro no uchi ni shika zo nakinuru

Burnt by frost The fields autumn Bring back to me, and Within my heart A stag cries out.

Lord Suetsune.

511

Right.

鹿の音も蟲もさまざま聲絶えて霜枯はてぬ宮城野の原

shika no oto mo mushi mo samasama koe taete shimogarehatenu miyagino no hara

The sound of stags and All the insects varied Cries are gone; Completely burned by frost is The plain of Miyagino.

Ietaka.

512

The Right say that the Left’s poem is ‘fine, perhaps’ [yoroshiki ka]. The Left reply that the Right’s ‘lacks any faults.’

Shunzei’s judgement: Both poems are on the topic of ‘withered fields’ and the Right has a fine final section with ‘the plain of Miyagino’ (miyagino no hara), but the initial section with ‘stags’ and ‘insects’ sounds as if the poet is enumerating members of list [kazoetatetaru yō ni ya kikoyu]. The Left, with its ‘The fields autumn bring back to me’ (nohara ni aki no shinobarete), followed by ‘Within my heart a stag cries out’ (kokoro no uchi ni shika zo nakinuru), is most fine. The Left should win.