Round Twenty-Three
Left (Tie)
時鳥山よりをちの里人はまたでや夜半の初音きくらん
| hototogisu yama yori ochi no satobito wa matade ya yowa no hatsune kikuran | O, cuckoo, Far from the mountains, Will villagers Without waiting, at midnight Ever hear your first cry? |
Chikanari
45
Right
うちしめる花橘の五月雨に軒もる夜半のほととぎすかな
| uchishimeru hanatachibana no samidare ni noki moru yowa no hototogisu kana | When utterly drenched is The orange blossom by The summer showers. Dripping from the eaves at midnight is A cuckoo’s call! |
Ie’kiyo
46
The Right’s poem has ‘Dripping from the eaves at midnight is a cuckoo’s call!’—this sounds like it conveys the conception, but yet is stylistically unclear. The Left’s poem takes up the conception of ‘On the leg-wearying / Mountains’ far side / Folk dwell—I wonder / Do they not have to wait for the autumn / Moon to fill their gaze?’,[1] doesn’t it? Neither has any real point worth making, so they tie.
[1] This poem is: Topic unknown. あしびきの山のあなたにすむ人はまたでや秋の月をみるらんashihiki no / yama no anata ni / sumu hito wa / matade ya aki no / tsuki o miruran Former Emperor Sanjō (SKKS IV: 382).