Left.
音すなり淺茅が下の忘水こほりしほどは知られざりしを
| oto su nari asaji ga shita no wasuremizu kōrishi hodo wa shirarezarishi o |
The sound is heard From beneath the sparse strands of cogon grass: Forgotten streamlets which, When frozen, Were all unknown. |
29
Right (Win).
聞きなれし峰の嵐にいつしかとをとづれかはる谷のした水
| kikinareshi mine no arashi ni itsushika to otozure kawaru tani no shitamizu |
Well accustomed to the howl Of storm-winds round the peaks, Suddenly, The sound does change: To waters running on the valley floor. |
30
The Right team have no comments to make about the Left’s poem this round, but the Left wonder whether storm-winds really blow in spring?
Shunzei comments that the opening of the Left’s poem is ‘extremely charming’. As for the criticism that storm-winds do not blow in spring, it’s ‘not the case that they do not blow at all’ at that time. After the end of spring, when storm-winds become gentler and their voice fainter, is when one must have poems in the spirit of rising waters flowing through the valleys. He also feels that ‘The sound does change:/To waters running on the valley floor.’ (otozure kawaru/tani no shitamizu) is superior to the Left’s ‘When frozen,/Were all unknown.’ (kôrishi hodo wa/shirarezarishi o), and so gives the Right the victory this round.