Round Nine

Left (M – Win)

逢ふことの今はかたのとなりぬればかりに問ひこし人もとひこず

au koto no ima wa katano to narinureba kari ni toikoshi hito mo toikozu

Meeting Now hard as crossing Katano Has become, so he who once Briefly hunted me out Never comes to call.

Lord Michitsune
65

Right (T – Win)

おさふればあまる涙はもる山のなげきにあたる雫なりけり

osaureba amaru namida wa moruyama no nageki ni ataru shizuku narikeri

I hold them in, but, Overflowing, my tears Drip down—on Mount Moru Gathering kindling—grief is plain In every droplet.

Lord Tadataka
66

Toshiyori states: the first poem says ‘hard as crossing Katano has become’, but emphasizes that the lover did come briefly. It’s a mistake to then say that he ‘never comes’. The second poem has ‘Overflowing, my tears / Drip down—on Mount Moru’—it’s certainly not the case that feeling is lacking in the conception here, and it does sound like this is what one feels, so it’s not difficult at all to say this is the winner.

Mototoshi states: neither of these poems has any particular faults or anything outstanding between them, but that there is no one to visit the poet briefly appears, at present, to be slightly more desolate.