Left (Tie).
春日野の野邊の草葉やもえぬらんけさは雪間の淺緑なる
| kasugano no nobe no kusaba ya moenuran kesa wa yukima no asamidori naru |
On Kasuga Plain Has the field grass Begun to sprout? This morning, the patches ‘tween the snow Are palely green… |
43
Right (Tie).
花をのみ待らん人に山里の雪間の草の春を見せばや
| hana o nomi matsuran hito ni yamazato no yukima no kusa no haru o miseba ya |
Blossoms, alone, Awaiting – to those folk, My mountain retreat, With grasses growing ‘tween the snow, In springtime would I show… |
44
Neither team has any comments to make about the other’s poem.
Shunzei remarks tha the use of no in the Left’s poem is ‘repetitious’. The Right’s phrasing ‘My mountain retreat,/With grasses growing ‘tween the snow’ (yamazato no yukima no kusa) was ‘certainly unusual’, but the poem was ‘appealing’. However, the Left’s poem is successful in evoking Kasuga Plain, and hence it is ‘difficult to judge it lacking’. Thus, a tie is the fairest result.