Sages’ Dwellings 仙宮
古郷はいかになりにしをののえのくつるもしらず年のへぬれば
furusato wa ika ni narinishi ono no e no kutsuru mo shirazu toshi no henureba | My home, O, what has become of it? My axe handle Rotting, I noticed not, and So the years passed by… |
Daishin
Sages’ Dwellings 仙宮
古郷はいかになりにしをののえのくつるもしらず年のへぬれば
furusato wa ika ni narinishi ono no e no kutsuru mo shirazu toshi no henureba | My home, O, what has become of it? My axe handle Rotting, I noticed not, and So the years passed by… |
Daishin
Ancient Estates 故郷
さしながらまだをののえはくちなくにまがきもねやもあらぬ里かな
sashinagara mada ono no e wa kuchinaku ni magaki mo neya mo aranu sato kana | Not entirely Yet has my axe handle Rotted, but No fence or bedchamber Has this estate! |
Nakazane
Left (Win).
末までといひしばかりに浅茅原宿も我名も朽や果てなん
sue made to iishi bakari ni asajibara yado mo wa ga na mo kuchi ya hatenan |
‘Until the very end,’ You simply said, but A field of cogon grass Surrounds my house; my name, too, Will it wither away…? |
A Servant Girl
769
Right.
斧の柄も年経る程は知る物をなど我恋の朽つる世もなき
ono no e mo toshi heru hodo wa shiru mono o nado wa ga koi no kutsuru yo mo naki |
Even my axe handle, Endures through the passing years, I know it, but Why is it that this love Does not rot from this world? |
Jakuren
770
Neither poem has any errors.
In judgement: ‘My house; my name, too’ (yado mo wa ga na mo) sounds better than ‘Why is it that this love’ (nado wa ga koi). The Left wins.
Left (Tie).
斧の柄をかくてや人はくたしけん山路おぼゆる春の空かな
ono no e o kakute ya hito wa kutashiken yamaji oboyuru haru no sora kana |
‘His axe haft: Is this how he Let it rot away?’ I wonder on the mountain paths Under the springtime skies. |
131
Right (Tie).
春の日は灘の塩屋のあま人もいとまありてやくらしわぶらん
haru no hi wa nada no shioya no amabito mo itoma arite ya kurashiwaburan |
In the springtime sun At Nada, the salt-making Fisher-folk, too, Have time to spare, and Live with it heavy on their hands… |
132
Both teams say they can find nothing to criticise in the other’s poem.
Shunzei agrees, saying, ‘You gentlemen have already stated that there is no reason to fault either poem. The round must be a tie.’