Round Twenty-Five

Left (Win)

あやなしなたぶさにずずをとりながらおもふこころのかつみだるらむ

ayanashi na tabusa ni zuzu o torinagara omou kokoro ni katsu midaruramu

How strange it is! Within my hand sundry bijoux I hold, yet still My heart and thoughts Are all confused…

Jakunen
149

Right

なにごとをまつとはなしにながらへていつすみよしとおもふべきみぞ

nanigoto o matsu to wa nashi ni nagaraete itsu sumiyoshi to omoubeki mi zo

Nothing in particular Have I to expect, but I live on; O, when, that ‘tis good to live Will I come to think?

Suke
150

The poem of the Left’s final section, saying ‘My heart and thoughts / Are all confused’ seems extremely pleasant. However, then there is ‘Within my hand sundry bijoux’: ‘sundry bijoux’ is an expression of foreign origin and sounds like prose diction. The poem of the Left seems pleasant with its allusion in ‘O, when, that ‘tis good to live’, yet the final section seems lacking in technique. While the Left’s second line gives cause for concern, its final sequencing is truly charming and thus it should win.