Left (Win).

片岡の霞も深き木隱れに朝日待つまの雲雀鳴くなり

kataoka no kasumi mo fukaki kogakure ni asahi matsu ma no hibari nakunari

At Kataoka The haze is deep upon The shade of the concealing trees; Awaiting dawn’s first light, A skylark sings.

A Servant Girl.

91

Right.

野邊見ればあがる雲雀も今はとて淺茅に落つる夕暮の空

nobe mireba agaru hibari mo ima wa tote asaji ni otsuru yūgure no sora

Looking out across the plain, A soaring skylark Seizes the second To plunge among the cogon-grass From the evening sky.

Ietaka.

92

Neither team has any criticisms to make of the other’s poem.

Shunzei states that, ‘Left and Right deal with the skylark at morning and evening respectively. Both poems are alike in content, yet the Right’s poem conveys a particularly desolate feeling. Why should this be? Once more, the Left is the victor.’ Commentators are divided as to whether in this judgement he is suggesting that loneliness is an inappropriate emotion to convey in a skylark-themed poem, or whether, knowing that the Left’s poem was composed by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, the host of the competition and the highest-ranking person present, he is simply flattering a powerful man’s work.