Round Fourteen

Left

つれもなき人にみせばや花薄うらなく風に靡くけしきを

tsure mo naki hito ni miseba ya hanasusuki uranaku kaze ni nabiku keshiki o

To that cruel Girl would I show The flowering silver grass, In the artless wind Inclining…

Lord Masakane, Controller and Head Chamberlain
27

Right

くる人も絶えぬる宿の糸すすきほに出て誰を招くなるらん

kuru hito mo taenuru yado no itosusuki ho ni idete tare o maneku naruran

His visits have Ceased to this house, so The slender silver grass Bursting into bud—who Might it be beckoning?

Tadasue
28

The Left’s poem, up to ‘would I show’ is poetic, but I do not feel that the expression ‘In the artless wind / Inclining’ is elegant. For the topic of love, it seems to me that both the beginning and the end of the poem is a slight case of ‘As a bamboo stalk / Has joints, from years gone by old-fashioned phrases’ lingering! The Right’s ‘Ceased to this house, so / The slender silver grass’ lacks anything remarkable about it, and seems excessively overgrown, so it’s impossible to decide on anyone as the winner or loser here.