Round Twenty-One

Left (Win)

しがらきの外山の末の郭公たが里ちかき初音なるらん

shigaraki no toyama no sue no hototogisu ta ga sato chikaki hatsune naruran

In Shigaraki At the foothills’ end A cuckoo By whose estate Might let out his first cry?

Takasuke
41

Right

橘のにほひを空に尋ねきて山時鳥なかぬ日ぞなき

tachibana no nioi o sora ni tazunekite yamahototogisu nakanu hi zo naki

Orange blossom’s familiar Scent within the skies I seek out, while The mountain cuckoo Fails to sing on not a single day…

Shimotsuke
42

The Left poem’s ‘near whose estate does it first call’ does not sound bad. The Right’s poem, too, seems to have no faults to mention, yet the Left still wins by a hair.