akatsuki no shigi no hane ga shigekeredo nado au koto no madōnaruran
At the dawn The snipes’ wingbeats Incessant are, so Why must our meetings Be intermittent?[1]
504
[1] An allusive variation on: Topic unknown. 曉のしぎのはねがきももはがき君がこぬ夜は我ぞかずかく akatsuki no / shigi no hanegaki / momohagaki / kimi ga konu yo wa / ware zo kazu kaku ‘With the dawn / The snipe beat their wings / A hundred times or more / On nights without a visit from you / I count them all.’ Anonymous (KKS XV: 761)
uguisu no naku ki no moto ni furu yuki wa hakaze ni hana no chiru ka to zo miru
The warbler Sings from in a tree, its roots Covered by falling snow; Breeze stirred by its wingbeats, blossom Does seem to scatter.
Lord Kiyosuke 1
Right
うぐひすのなきて木づたふ梅がえにこぼるる露や涙なるらん
uguisu no nakite kozutau ume ga e ni koboruru tsuyu ya namida naruran
The warbler Crying flits from Branch to plum branch; Has the dripping dew His tears, perhaps, become?
Shun’e 2
Both Left and Right proceed smoothly, but what are we to make of the line ‘Crying flits’ in the Right’s poem? As this is also an expression which implies that dew is falling, these should tie.
