Left
なみだがはせけどとまらずあかつきのわかれはをしのうきねをぞする
| namidagawa sekedo tomarazu akatsuki no wakare wa oshi no ukine o zo suru | The river of my tears I dam, yet they cease not: Dawn’s Parting I regret, as a mandarin Drifting in fitful sleep. |
36
Right
おきてゆくかたもしられずまどふかななみだもそでもめにさはりつつ
| okiteyuku kata mo shirarezu madou kana namida mo sode mo me ni sawaritsutsu | Rising and departing, Knowing not where to go, I am lost! My tears and my sleeves, too, Ever sting my eyes… |
37
Round Eighteen
Left
蘭きてみる人もなき宿に恋すてふ名のいかで立ちけん
| fujibakama kitemiru hito mo naki yado ni koisu chō na no ikade tachiken | My violet asters To come to see no one is There at my house, so Why has a rumour of love Arisen here? |
Chikafusa
35
Right
わが恋ふる人もきてみぬ蘭何とてつゆの染めておくらん
| wa ga kouru hito mo kiteminu fujibakama nani tote tsuyu no somete’okuran | I love him, yet That man has not come to see you O, asters, so Why does the dewfall Dye you in its falling? |
The Head’s Daughter
36
The Left’s overall impression is not bad, but I am curious about why a rumour of love should darken the door of a house, if it’s one where ‘no one comes to see’. Then, the Right uses ‘Why does the dewfall / Dye you in its falling?’—this seems like an excessive use of diction and the sequencing doesn’t sound smooth, so these seem of about the same standard.
Asters and the Same
Round Seventeen
Left
あふことは片野ののべの蘭たれきてみよと露のおくらん
| au koto wa katano no nobe no fujibakama tare kitemiyo to tsuyu no okuran | Our meeting, so hard: In the hillside meadows grow Violet asters— Who should to come to see them Amongst the fallen dew? |
Nakafusa, Former Governor of Awaji
33
Right
色もかもよそへてぞみる蘭ねずりの衣馴れしかたみに
| iro mo ka mo yosoete zo miru fujibakama nezuri no koromo nareshi katami ni | Both scent and hue Do I imagine seeing Among the violet asters, Of his patterned robe, So familiar, a reminder they are… |
Hyōenokami
34
These poems, both Left and Right, appear to be of about the same quality, but while I am familiar with robes patterned with purple gromwell, I do wonder what it is that is patterning the robes here. Is the poet composing on asters imagining them to be gromwell? Even if that’s the case, the conception is not particularly apparent, so I have to say that the Left is better.
Round Sixteen
Left
荻のはは暮行く風に音すなり我がまつ人のかからましかば
| ogi no ha wa kureyuku kaze ni otosu nari wa ga matsu hito no kakaramashikaba | The cogon grass fronds With the falling twilight breezes Sound out, though Were it the man I’m waiting for It would be better… |
Major Controller of the Left Tametaka
31
Right
逢ふことはかた野にしげる荻の葉の音をばたつな秋ははつとも
| au koto wa katano ni shigeru ogi no ha no oto oba tatsu na aki wa hatsu tomo | Our meeting, so hard: On the hillside thickly growing, O, cogon grass fronds Do not make a sound! For with autumn’s end I have had enough, yet.. |
Horikawa, Court Lady to Her Highness
32
I feel that the emotions encompassed by the sound of the wind in ‘Were it the man I’m waiting for / It would be better’ sounded more striking than ‘On the hillside thickly growing, / O, cogon grass fronds’.
Cogon grass and the Same
Round Fifteen
Left
うき人を驚かすべき方ぞなきうらやましきは荻の上風
| ukibito o odorokasubeki kata zo naki urayamashiki wa ogi no uwakaze | That cruel girl: To make her notice me I have no way at all! How I envy The wind blowing o’er the cogon grass! |
Lecturer Kakuga
29
Right
荻原やよかぜぞつらき音せずはねてこそ人を夢にみましか
| ogiwara ya yokaze zo tsuraki oto sezu wa nete koso hito o yume ni mimashika | O, plain of cogon grass, How unkind is the wind tonight! For without your sound, then Indeed, I would sleep that she I would glimpse within my dreams… |
The Head
30
The conception of love sounds superior at present in envying the ‘wind blowing o’er the cogon grass’ than it does in the ‘unkind is the wind tonight’.
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.
Silver Grass and the Same
Round Thirteen
Left
ほに出てもなどかひもなき花薄思ひこめてぞ有るべかりける
| ho ni idetemo nadoka kai mo naki hanasusuki omoikomete zo arubekarikeru | My feelings burst from bud, but Somehow, to no avail at all, O, blossoming silver grass! Keeping them closed up— That’s what I should have done! |
Major Archbishop
25
Right
うしとのみ人の心はいはれ野にまねくすすきを何か頼まん
| ushi to nomi hito no kokoro wa iwareno ni maneku susuki o nanika tanoman | Simply cruel is That girl’s heart— Upon Iware Plain In the beckoning silver grass How can I place my trust? |
Head
26
Left and Right appear to be of about the same standard.
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.
