ama tsu sora kumo no hatate ni midaretsutsu me mo aya nari ya asobu itoyū
In the heavenly skies The clouds’ edge is All a tangle; Have my eyes been deceived by The sporting heat haze?
His Excellency, Sueyoshi 520
Right
とがむべき人なきゐでのやまぶきをこころやすくやなみのをるらむ
togamubeki hito naki ide no yamabuki o kokoro yasuku ya nami no oruramu
Is it that to scold them Not a soul there is in Ide, that The kerria, Without a care, By the waves are plucked?
Tango 521
The conception of the Left’s ‘clouds’ edge is all a tangle; have my eyes been deceived’ is nothing less than an exemplary verse. The Right’s ‘in Ide that the kerria, without a care, by the waves are plucked’ also sounds charming, this round is another tie, isn’t it.
[i] This poem is included in Fubokushō (VI: 2017), attributed to Kanemori, with the headnote ‘Kerria, Poetry Match held by the Reikeiden Junior Consort, Second Month, Tenryaku 11’.
[ii] This poem is included in Shikashū (I: 46) as an anonymous poem with the headnote ‘Composed for the Poetry Match held at the Residence of the Reikeiden Junior Consort’.
