Composed on the conception of hawking.
かりくらしかたののましば折敷きてよどのかはせの月をみるかな
| karikurashi katano no mashiba orishikite yodo no kawase no tsuki o miru kana | While hunting night has fallen, so In Katano brushwood I’ll break and spread around, then In the Yodo’s rapids I’ll gaze upon the moon! |
Kinhira, Middle Captain of the Inner Palace Guards, Left Division
Left (Win).
行く末の深き縁とぞ契つるまだ結ばれぬ淀の若菰
| yukusue no fukaki eni to zo chigiritsuru mada musubarenu yodo no wakagomo |
In the future, A deep connection will we have, You vowed, Yet still no one has cupped This young shoot of wild rice at Yodo. |
A Servant Girl.
863
Right.
結ばんと契し人を忘れずやまだ影淺き井手の玉水
| musuban to chigirishi hito o wasurezu ya mada kage asaki ide no tamamizu |
That we would be joined We swore, so Will you not forget me? The slight reflection left In Ide’s jewelled waters… |
Ietaka.
864
Both Left and Right state: there is no separation between man and woman.
In judgement: ‘Young shoot of wild rice at Yodo’ (yodo no wakagomo) and ‘Ide’s jewelled waters’ (ide no tamamizu) are both elegant in style, but the Left has pledged a more profound bond. The Right has ‘the slight reflection left’ (mada kage asaki) and the Left is a poem about a vow which has been made. The Right is just referring to events of the past. Thus, ‘depth’ should win.
Left.
薦枕高瀬の淀に立つ鴫の羽音もそそやあはれかくなり
| komo makura takase no yodo ni tatsu shigi no haoto mo soso ya aware kaku nari |
Pillowed on a mat of rush Where the Yodo meets Takase The starting snipe With rustling wingbeats Draw in my melancholy. |
397
Right (Win).
あはれさは萩吹く風の音のみか有明の月に鴫も鳴なり
| awaresa wa hagi fuku kaze no oto nomi ka ariake no tsuki ni shigi mo nakunari |
Melancholy is not In the wind upon the bush clover’s Sigh alone but With the moon at break of dawn The snipe a’crying. |
The Provisional Master of the Empress Household Office.
398
The Right state that the Left’s poem is based on a misinterpretation of the song ‘The Spreading Moon Rises’, and this has led to the usage of ‘mat of rush’. Furthermore, in the absence of expressions such as ‘bush clover’ or ‘new grown rice’, ‘rustling’ lacks a context. The Left merely state that the initial section of the Right’s poem ‘does not sound attractive’.
Shunzei’s judgement: The gentlemen of the Right have already stated the issue with ‘rush mat’. As for ‘rustling’, I have already suggested that it was unsuitable in the earlier poem on bush clover in the topic of ‘Autumn Evenings’, and it is unfeasible to think that one could go so far as to use it in reference to ‘wing beats’. In regard to the Right’s poem, the initial line, indeed, sounds poor, and the central ‘alone but’ is also regrettable, but even so, it wins the round.