Left (Win).
夜を深みしば鳴く鶏は我ごとく寢ても覺めても戀やすべなき
| yo o fukami shibanaku kake wa ware gotoku netemo sametemo koi ya subenaki |
At the close of night The cock crows from time to time, Just as I Both sleeping and waking, Won’t a thought of love console me? |
Kenshō.
781
Right.
逢ひ見ては憂き折節も鳥の音に思出づれば戀しかりける
| aimite wa uki orifushi mo tori no ne ni omoi’izureba koishikarikeru |
A meeting always Brings a painful parting, but The cock’s crow Brings back memories Of the one I love… |
Jakuren.
781
The Right state: we cannot comprehend a cock feeling thoughts of love when asleep. The Left state: the initial section of the Right’s poem is incomprehensible. The second section is antiquated.
In judgement: the Left’s ‘cock crows from time to time’ (shibanaku kake) and ‘Won’t a thought of love console me?’ (koi ya subenaki) are expressions the style of which I am unable to accept. Moreover, I don’t feel that cocks really have thoughts of love while they are asleep. But, I have wondered, when hearing them crow so vigorously at dawn whether, ‘just as I, both sleeping and waking, they are thinking of love’? The Right’s poem is somewhat naïve in style, and suggests that after having met, and parted from, a lover, subsequently hearing the cock crow brings back mixed feelings of love and sorrow, but the initial impression it gives is that because a meeting has brought about painful feelings, something has happened – but what this is is left unclear. The Left’s poem is certainly not out of keeping with one in this style. Thus, the Left should win.