Round Twenty-Nine
Left (Win)
君やあらぬ我が身やあらぬおぼつかなたのめしことのみなかはりぬる
kimi ya aranu wa ga mi ya aranu obotsukana tanomeshi koto no mina kawarinuru | Aren’t you who you once were? Aren’t I who I was then? How strange that All we trusted in Has changed. |
Shun’e
57
Right
恋ひしなん命ぞをしきつれもなき人にしも身をかへんねたさに
koishinan inochi zo oshiki tsure mo naki hito ni shimo mi o kaen netasa ni | That I would die of love Makes me regret my life! But for that cruel Girl should I Exchange myself—exasperating! |
Yorisuke
58
I feel the left is old-fashioned, isn’t it? And yet, it is not without feeling. The Right does not have a poor conception, but its diction is insufficient.




I don’t disagree with the judgement, except to say that for me it’s a much more clear win, despite being old-fashioned.
Thank you for your comment! The judge, Michiyoshi, is deliberately echoing Ki no Tsurayuki’s criticism of Ariwara no Narihira, that his ‘diction is insufficient for his conception’, as Shun’e’s poem echoes Narihira’s famous KKS XV: 747.