Left
をしとおもふいのちにかへてあかつきのわかれのみちはいかでやめてむ
| oshi to omou inochi ni kaete akatsuki no wakare no michi wa ikade yametemu | Filled with regret, This life I would exchange: On dawn’s Parting path How can I stop my steps? |
30
Right
あけぬとてあかずしきみをわかるればこころはゆかぬものにざりける
| akenu tote akazu shi kimi o wakarureba kokoro wa yukanu mono ni zarikeru | When at dawn, Unsatisfied, from you, my love, I part, My heart goes nowhere At all! |
31
Left
きみをわれおきてしゆけばあさつゆのきえかへりてもあはむとぞおもふ
| kimi o ware okiteshi yukeba asatsuyu no kiekaerite mo awamu to zo omou | With you, my love, I Having risen and departed With the morning dew, Vanishing away, only To meet once more, I feel. |
28
Right
あさぼらけあかぬわかれをわびつつもゆふぐれをこそなぐさめにすれ
| asaborake akanu wakare o wabitsutsu mo yūgure o koso nagusame ni sure | At the pale edge of dawn, Unsatisfied, parting Leaves me ever desolate— The evening is sure to be My consolation! |
29
Left
はるのよのあかぬわかれのあかつきはちへのにしきをたつにざりける
| haru no yo no akanu wakare no akatsuki wa chie no nishiki o tatsu ni zarikeru | After a spring night, Unsatisfied, parting at The dawn, Sewn a thousandfold, the brocade Through which I go! |
26
Right
あけぬてふこゑもなみだももろともにうちいづるからにそでぞぬれける
| akenu chō koe mo namida mo morotomo ni uchi’izuru kara ni sode zo nurekeru | ‘Tis dawn, say Birdsongs and tears Both, Bursting out, so My sleeves are soaked! |
27
Round Twelve
Left
あふことをいなみ野に咲く女郎花をらぬものゆゑ袖ぞ露けき
| au koto o inamino ni saku ominaeshi oranu mono yue sode zo tsuyukeki | A meeting she Declines—blooming upon Inami Plain, A maidenflower I have not picked, yet How dew-drenched my sleeves! |
Taiyu no Suke
23
Right
うき人の心なりせばをみなへし吹くとも風になびかざらまし
| ukibito no kokoro nariseba ominaeshi fuku tomo kaze ni nabikazaramashi | That cruel girl’s Heart did they but have, then The maidenflowers, With the gusting of the wind Would not bend at all, no doubt… |
Tadasue
24
‘With the gusting of the wind’ and so forth sounds more in keeping with the topic at present than ‘blooming upon Inami Plain, / A maidenflower’.
The Same and Maidenflowers
Round Eleven
Left
恋しさにおもひよそへて女郎花折るわが袖ぞいとど露けき
| koishisa ni omoi’yosoete ominaeshi oru wa ga sode zo itodo tsuyukeki | In my yearning Alike, I feel, is This maidenflower— The sleeve I picked her with is Utterly drenched with dew! |
The Former Assistant Governor-General
21
Right
なつかしく折る手にかをれ女郎花恋しき人もわするばかりに
| natsukashiku oru te ni kaore ominaeshi koishiki hito mo wasuru bakari ni | So sweetly In my hand that picked you shine, O, maidenflower! That the one I love I would forget a while… |
His Excellency, the Head
22
The Left’s ‘sleeve I picked her with is / Utterly drenched with dew’ is a form of words entirely in tune with the topic—it appears charmingly exactly how a poem in a poetry match should be. Then the Right expresses as somewhat shallow and unreliable conception of love that might be forgotten in the face of the shine of a maidenflower picked and held in the hand. Thus, I feel the dew-drenched sleeves are superior here, aren’t they.
Round Ten
Left
秋はぎの下葉の露にあらねども消えぬばかりぞ人は恋しき
| akihagi no shitaba no tsuyu ni aranedomo kienu bakari zo hito wa koishiki | Upon the autumn bush clover’s Underleaves a dewdrop I am not, yet Simply will I fade away So much do I love him! |
Taiyu no Suke
19
Right
わすられて年ふる里の浅茅生に誰がためしける萩の錦ぞ
| wasurarete toshi furu sato no asajū ni ta ga tame shikeru hagi no nishiki zo | All forgotten Through the passing years, at my home Among the tangled mugwort, For whose sake is spread The bush clover’s brocade? |
The Daughter of His Excellency, the Head
20
I feel that the poem of the Left is conspicuously poetic, saying ‘Simply will I fade away / So much do I love him!’ while the poem of the Right’s ‘Through the passing years, at my home / Among the tangled mugwort, / For whose sake is spread / The bush clover’s brocade?’ makes me want to ask the bush clover the same question! The pull my heart in more than one direction, so here, too, I feel it’s not possible to decide on a winner or loser.
