Left (Win).

冬枯れの芝生が下に住みしかど春は雲ゐにあがる雲雀か

fuyugare no shibafu ga shita ni sumishikado haru wa kumoi ni agaru hibari ka

Winter-burned The greensward, and beneath it Dwelling, yet With springtime to the skies Ascending, ‘tis the skylark.

Lord Kanemune.

87

Right.

雲雀あがる春の燒野の末遠み都のかたは霞なりけり

hibari agaru haru no yakeno no sue tōmi miyako no kata wa kasumi narikeri

Skylarks soar above The springtime stubble burned fields; To the distance far Towards the capital, all With haze is covered.

The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.

88

The Right state that the Left’s poem ‘would probably be better’ without the final ka (the use of this particle, marking rhetorical tone, was considered old-fashioned by the time the poem was written, and this old-fashioned air is what the Right are criticising). The Left reply that the final two stanzas of the Right’s poem ‘are not effective’, probably suggesting that the poem implies the capital is on fire, rather than simply being concealed by smoke from stubble-burning.

Shunzei merely remarks that the Left’s criticisms are ‘apposite, in general’ and awards them the victory.