Composed as a love poem.
一夜とてよがれしとこのさむしろにやがてもちりのつもりぬるかな
| hitoyo tote yogaresi toko no samusiro ni yagate mo tiri no tumorinuru kana | ‘Just for one night,’ he said, but At night my bed lies abandoned, with A chilly, threadbare blanket Where the dust Is piled high! |
Sanuki
Left (Tie)
一夜のみ宿かる人の契とて露結び置く草枕かな
| hitoyo nomi yado karu hito no chigiri tote tsuyu musubioku kusamakura kana | For just a single night Will he rent my lodging and Make a brief bond of love; Dewdrops tangled with My grassy pillow… |
A Servant Girl
1163
Right
結びけん契もつらし草枕待つ夕暮も宿を頼みて
| musubiken chigiri mo tsurashi kusamakura matsu yūgure mo yado o tanomite | Tangled Brief bonds are chill; With a grassy pillow She awaits the evening and A request for lodging. |
Takanobu
1164
Left and Right state together: both poems have only a faint conception of entertainers.
In judgement: both Left and Right have a ‘grassy pillow’ (kusamakura) and a faint conception of entertainers, as the Gentlemen have already stated. They seem to me to somehow resemble the poem by the Left in Round Nine. The Left’s ‘dewfall drops tangled’ (tsuyu musubioku) and the Right’s ‘brief bonds are chill’ (chigiri mo tsurashi) are both elegant. Once again, I make this a tie.
Left (Win)
一夜かす野上の里の草枕結びすてける人の契りを
| hitoyo kasu nogami no sato no kusamakura musubitekeru hito no chigiri o | For a single night you lent, At the estate of Nogami, Your pillow of grass to me; Entwined in A brief bond of love! |
Lord Sada’ie
1159
Right
恨むべき方こそなけれ東路の野上の庵の暮れ方の空
| uramubeki kata koso nakere azumaji no nogami no io no kurekata no sora | My despite Has no place to go; Upon the eastern roads Above a hut in Nogami The sky is filled with darkness… |
Jakuren
1160
The Right state: ‘for a single night you lent’ is grating on the ear. In addition, we wonder about the appropriateness of the final section. The Left state: the Right’s poem has no particular faults to mention.
In judgement: the Left’s ‘estate of Nogami’ (nogami no sato), and the Right’s ‘a hut in Nogami’ (nogami no io), then saying ‘entwined’ (musubitekeru) and ‘the sky is filled with darkness’ (kurekata no sora) – both poems have significant conception, but how should the initial section of the Right’s poem – ‘my despite has no place to go’ (uramubeki kata koso nakere) be understood? If it was a sky filled with light, then one would feel despite, but in the evening she would be lending her hut, surely. There is nothing unusual about the conclusion of the Left’s poem. It should win.