Left.
龍田姫今はの比の秋風に時雨をいそぐ人の袖かな
| tatsuta hime ima wa no koro no aki kaze ni shigure o isogu hito no sode kana |
Princess Tatsuta, At this time, now, With the autumn winds Does hurry along the showers Upon folks’ sleeves. |
479
Right.
あはれなる身のたぐひとも思来し秋も今はの夕暮の空
| awarenaru mi no tagui tomo omoikoshi aki mo ima wa no yūgure no sora |
How sad Am I and so, too, I’d thought was Autumn, now ended With the evening skies. |
480
The Right state that ‘hurry along the showers’ (shigure o isogu) is lacking in technique [jutsu nashi]. The Left merely say that the Right’s poem ‘isn’t bad.’
Shunzei’s judgement: Both poems use ‘now’ (ima wa) in their diction [kotoba], in conjunction with a powerful [sechinaru] conception [kokoro] of regretting autumn’s passing. Nevertheless, the Gentleman of the Left has said the Right’s poem ‘isn’t bad’ and the Gentleman of the Right has said that of the Left ‘lacks technique’. I feel, however, that the initial conception ‘Princess Tatsuta, at this time, now’ (tatsuta hime ima wa) does not refer only to autumn [but could be used for winter, too]. The Right’s ‘Autumn, now ended with the evening skies’ (aki mo ima wa no yūgure no sora) is also somewhat lacking in technique, is it not? Thus, the round lacks a clear winner, or loser.