Left (Win).
時分かぬ浪さへ色に泉川柞の杜に嵐吹らし
toki wakanu nami sae iro ni izumigawa hahaso no mori ni arashi fukurashi |
Ever unchanging, Even the waves have coloured On Izumi River; In the oak groves Have the wild winds blown. |
443
Right.
秋深き岩田の小野の柞原下葉は草の露や染らん
aki fukaki iwata no ono no hahasowara shitaba wa kusa no tsuyu ya somuran |
Autumn’s deep at Iwata-no-Ono In the oak groves Have the lower leaves by grass Touched dewfall been dyed? |
444
Neither team has any criticisms to make of the other’s poem.
Shunzei’s judgement: The total effect of the Left’s ‘even the waves have coloured on Izumi River’ (nami sae iro in izumigawa) is most superior [sugata wa yū narubeshi]. However, there does not appear to be any element linked to the final section’s ‘wild winds’ (arashi) in the initial part of the poem. The Right has ‘have the lower leaves by grass touched dewfall been dyed?’ (shitaba wa kusa no tsuyu ya somuran), without, in the initial section having an expression like ‘treetops stained by showers’ (kozue wa shigure somu), and I wonder about having the lower leaves on the trees touched by ‘dewfall on the grass’ (kusa no tsuyu). The Left’s ‘have the wild winds blown’ should win.