nanigoto o akenu kurenu to isoguramu hakanaki yume no yo to wa shirushiru
What is it that makes Dawn and dusk Come so fast? A fleeting dream is This world—that I know so well.
Lord Shigenori 111
Right (Win)
かずならぬみをうきくさとおもへどもなぞよとともにしづむなるらむ
kazu naranu mi o ukikusa to omoedomo nazo yo to tomo ni shizumu naruramu
Not even numbered among folk, so Pitiful am I—a floating duckweed Am I, I feel yet, Why, over such a time Should I sink into the depths?
Lord Morikata 112
The Left’s poem expresses grief over the nature of the mundane world and finds a reason for this in the realisation that all is lost within a fleeting dream. The configuration of the Right poem’s ‘Should I sink into the depths?’ is not particularly elegant, yet placing ‘Pitiful am I—a floating duckweed’ first and then following this with ‘Should I sink into the depths?’ is charming, I have to say. The Right should win.
Neither Right nor Left has any particular remarks to make about the other’s poem this round.
Shunzei says, ‘Both poems are splendid in form, but the Left’s ‘among the wavelets and dewfall’ (nami to tsuyu to ni) is particularly pleasing. It must win.
