〔　　　〕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).