Tag Archives: mato

Spring I: 27

Left (Win).

梓弓はるの雲居にひゞくまで鞆音にかよふ的の音かな

azusa yumi
haru no kumoi ni
hibiku made
tomone ni kayou
mato no oto kana
Catalpa bows
In springtime round the cloud-borne palace
Resound;
Bowstring on bracer and
Arrow on target – what a sound!

Lord Kanemune

53

Right.

梓弓まうけの箭にやひかるらんはてまでけふは當りぬる哉

azusa yumi
môke no ya ni ya
hikaruran
hate made kyô wa
atarinuru kana
Catalpa bows’
Spare arrows: will they
Be drawn, I wonder?
By this day’s end
All will have struck the target…

Lord Tsune’ie

54

The Right team have no comments to make about the Left’s poem, but the Left state that the initial section of the Right’s poem is ‘prosaic [heikai]’. Shunzei agrees, saying that the term ‘spare arrows’ is ‘unsuitable diction for poetry’ [uta kotoba ni yoroshikarazaru] and so the Left’s poem must be adjudged the winner.