Pine crickets
Left (Win)
いまこむとたれたのめけむあきのよをあかしかねつつまつむしのなく
| ima komu to tare tanomekemu aki no yo o akashikanetsutsu matsumushi no naku | ‘I’m coming now’— Who might I trust to say that, On an autumn night Ever unable to greet the dawn The pine crickets cry. |
Tachibana no Yasūdoki
7
Right
あききてはほどへにけるをあやしくもわがまつむしのおとづれもせぬ
| aki kite wa hodo henikeru o ayashiku mo wa ga matsumushi no otozure mo senu | Autumn comes, and Time has passed, but How strange it is I pine for the crickets That never come to call. |
Minamoto no Satake
8
Round One
Deer
Left (Tie)
さをしかも秋をかなしとおもへばやときしも声をたてて鳴くらん
| saoshika mo aki o kanashi to omoeba ya toki shimo koe o tatete nakuran | Does the stag, too, Autumn’s sadness Feel? That at this time, of all, his cry Should ring out so… |
Lord Shige’ie
25
Right
嶺になく鹿の音ちかくきこゆなり紅葉吹きおろす夜はのあらしに
| mine ni naku shika no ne chikaku kikoyu nari momiji fuki’orosu yowa no arashi ni | Crying upon the peak The stag’s bell close by Sounds, carried With blown down scarlet leaves On the midnight storm… |
Lord Tsunemori
26
The Left truly sounds as if it grasps the conception with its use of ‘of all, his cry’. The Right, too, is poetic with ‘blown down scarlet leaves’. There may be some who say that one should not compose using a subsidiary topic, yet in the poetry match held in Tentoku[i] and the poetry match held by Emperor Kazan[ii], this was judged not to be a fault.
[i] This was the Dairi uta’awase Tentoku yo-nen 内裏歌合 天徳四年 (‘Palace Poetry Match Tentoku 4’) held by Emperor Murakami on the 30th day of the Third Month, Tentoku 4 [28.4.960].
[ii] This was the Dairi uta’awase Kanna gan-nen 内裏歌合 寛和元年 (‘Palace Poetry Match Kanna 1’) held by Emperor Kazan the 10th day of the Eighth Month, Kanna 1 [28.8.985].
Left (Tie)
ふくかぜにとまりもあへずちるときはやへやまぶきのはなもかひなし
| fuku kaze ni tomari mo aezu chiru toki wa yaeyamabuki no hana mo kainashi | The gusting wind Does never cease, so Scattering time has come upon The eightfold kerria Blooms—so little good they are! |
Okikaze
35
Right
をしめどもたちもとまらずゆくはるをなこしのやまのせきもとめなむ
| oshimedomo tachi mo tomarazu yuku haru o nakoshi no yama no seki mo tomenamu | How I regret it, yet Cannot halt the departure of Parting spring— O, that Nakoshi Mountain’s Barrier would hold it! |
Tsurayuki
36
ときのまもあきのいろをやをみなへしながきあだなにいはれはてなん
| toki no ma mo aki no iro o ya ominaeshi nagaki adana ni iwarehatenan | For such a brief time In her autumn hues is A maidenflower, and yet Ever is she faithless Said to be… |
39
あきのののくさをみなへししらぬみははなのなにこそおどろかれぬれ
| aki no no no kusa o mina heshi shiranu mi wa ana no na ni koso odorokarenure | Through all the autumn meadows’ Grasses have I passed, yet I know them not, so When I learned her name How surprised I was! |
40
〔 〕むつれなつれむなぞもあやなてにとりつみてしばしかくさじ[1]
| mutsure na tsuremu nazo mo ayana te ni toritsumite shibashi kakusaji | How I long to stay fondly with you, So why, indeed, should You be picked, and Briefly fail to hide yourself… |
25
These poems spell out ominaeshi at the beginning of each line.
をののえはみなくちにけりなにもせでへしほどをだにしらずざりける
| ono no e wa mina kuchinikeri nani mo sede heshi hodo o dani shirazu zarikeru | My axe handles Have all rotted away! Doing nothing, Of the passing time completely Unaware, have I been. |
26
[1] The initial line of this poem is missing from the available original texts of the contest, however, given that this is a kutsukamuriuta on maidenflowers (ominaeshi), it must have both begun and ended with o, like poems 23 and 24, and been a similar type of phrase (‘a flower picked’ oru hana o をる花を; ‘those who picked you’ oru hito o をる人を) (Miki et al. 2019, 94).
