Topic unknown.
あふことのなみのしたくさみがくれてしづ心なくねこそなかるれ
| au koto no nami no shitakusa migakurete shizukokoro naku ne koso nakarure | Meetings with you I have None, so as a weed beneath the waves I hide myself away, and With an unquiet heart, Sob out my tears! |
Round Thirteen
Left
しぐれもるたびねのとこははなぞめのたもとぞさきにまづかへりける
| shigure moru tabine no toko wa hanazome no tamoto zo saki ni mazu kaerikeru | A shower drips upon me As I doze upon my journey-bed; Blossom-dyed, My sleeves, before me, Have first returned to what they were! |
Masahira
75
Right (Win)
はなれゆくみやこをおもふひとりねのなみだをさそふはつしぐれかな
| hanareyuku miyako o omou hitorine no namida o sasou hatsushigure kana | Distant has grown The capital, but it fills my thoughts, Sleeping solo, My tears invited by The first shower! |
Chikashige
76
The configuration of the Left’s poem appears charming, but it would have sounded more so had there been a reason why ‘my sleeves, before’ had returned to the capital on the journey. The diction and conception of the Right’s poem, beginning with ‘distant has grown’ and leading to ‘tears invited’, is extremely pleasant. It seems the Right wins.


Round Ten
Left (Tie)
くさまくらしぐれもそでをぬらしけりみやこをこふるなみだならねど
| kusamakura shigure mo sode o nurashikeri miyako o kouru namida naranedo | On a pillow of grass The showers, too, my sleeves Have soaked; Longing for the capital These tears are not, yet… |
Hiromori
69
Right
かりいほさすならのからはのむらしぐれあはれはまきのおとばかりかは
| kari’io sasu nara no karawa no murashigure aware wa maki no oto bakari ka wa | Erecting a crude hut, The withered leaves of oak are Struck by cloudbursts; Does sadness in the evergreens’ Sound solely lie? |
Dharma Master Chikyō
70
Both Left and Right appear to have elegant configuration and diction, but the Left seems to presents the soaking of sleeves by showers as something novel, while the Right gives a feeling that it is only the sound of evergreens that makes one sad. Thus, these tie.


Round Four
Left (Tie)
たびねするあれたるやどのしぐれにはなみだもともにもるにぞありける
| tabinesuru aretaru yado no shigure ni wa namida mo tomo ni moru ni zo arikeru | Sleeping on my travels In a ruined hut, The showers And my tears, both, Do leave me drenched! |
Minamoto no Munenaga
(formerly Michikiyo)
57
Right
ちぎらねどさよのねざめにおとづれてしぐれぞたびのともとなりける
| chigiranedo sayo no nezame ni otozurete shigure zo tabi no tomo to narikeru | It made no vow, yet On awaking from a brief night’s sleep, I am visited by the sound Of showers—my journey’s Companion, have they become. |
Fujiwara no Noritsune
58
The Left conception and configuration appear pleasant, but after saying that one is ‘sleeping on my travels’ to then have ‘a ruined hut’—this does not really sound like somewhere a person would take lodging on their journey. As for the Right, it seems like the only reason the poet has begun with ‘it made no vow, yet’ is because he wished to use ‘companion’, but these pieces of diction are too far apart. Still, it does seem to have some conception, so I make these a tie.


Dew upon the plains.
久かたの空とぶかりのなみだかもおほあらきののささのうへのつゆ
| hisakata no ama tobu kari no namida kamo ōarakino no sasa no ue no tsuyu | Eternal Heaven-flying goose Tears, perhaps? Upon Ōaraki Plain, Dew upon the dwarf-bamboo…[1] |

[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. なきわたるかりの涙やおちつらむ物思ふやどの萩のうへのつゆ nakiwataru / kari no namida ya / ochitsuran / mono’omou yado no / hagi no ue no tsuyu ‘Calling across / Did the geese let tears / Fall? / My dwelling, lost in thought, / Has dew upon the bush clover.’ Anonymous (KKS IV:221); and: 如是為而也 尚哉将老 三雪零 大荒木野之 小竹尓不有九二 kakushite ya / nao ya oinuramu / miyuki furu / ōarakino no / shino ni aranaku ni ‘Is this how it is to be? / Have I yet grown old / Though covered with fair snow / On Ōaraki Plain / An arrow-bamboo I am not…’ Anonymous (MYS VII: 1349).
Round Seven
Left (Tie)
草がくれ見えぬをしかも妻こふる声をばえこそ忍ばざりけれ
| kusagakure mienu oshika mo tsuma kouru koe oba e koso shinobazarikere | Hidden by the grasses, Unseen, the stag, too Longing for his mate, His bell, indeed, is unable To conceal! |
Lord Yorimasa
37
Right
秋の野の花のたもとに置く露や妻よぶしかの涙なるらむ
| aki no no no hana no tamoto ni oku tsuyu ya tsuma yobu shika no namida naruramu | In the autumn meadows, Upon the blossoms’ sleeves Are the fallen dewdrops The stag—calling for his mate— Letting tears fall? |
Narinaka
38
The Left is novel, and the Right charming, respectively. The Right’s poem does have a large number of identical syllables—while this is criticized in the Code of the Creation of Poetry as a ‘whole body fault’, it is not the case that poems containing this defect have not appeared in poetry matches from time to time, and I don’t feel it’s necessary to examine whether there are a large number of similar cases here: such things are simply a style of poetry.




Round Four
Left
さをしかのなくねはよそにききつれど涙は袖の物にぞ有りける
| saoshika no naku ne wa yoso ni kikitsuredo namida wa sode no mono ni zo arikeru | The stag’s Sad bell in the distance Did I hear, yet still My tears my sleeves Have covered. |
Sadanaga
31
Right (Win)
山たかみおろすあらしやよわるらんかすかに成りぬさをしかの声
| yama takami orosu arashi ya yowaruran kasuka ni narinu saoshika no koe | From the mountain’s heights Descending, has the storm wind Weakened? Faintly comes The stag’s bell. |
Lord Suetsune
32
I do wonder about the Left, given that there appears to be a poem by the late Lord Toshiyori:
さをしかのなくねは野べにきこゆれどなみだは床の物にぞ有りける
| saoshika no naku ne wa nobe ni kikoyuredo namida wa toko no mono ni zo arikeru[1] | The stag’s Sad bell upon the plain I heard, yet My tears my bed Have covered. |
I am a little leery of the Right’s central line, but overall it is not the case that this poem lacks conception, so it should win.






[1] KYS (3) III: 225 Composed on ‘listening to stags in a hut in the fields’. Also SZS V: 310 ‘Composed when he heard a stag belling while at a mountain retreat in Tanakami’. Also Sanboku kikashū 451 ‘Listening to stags in a hut in the fields’.