Left (Win).
白菊も紫深く成にけり秋と冬とに色や分くらん
| shiragiku mo murasaki fukaku narinikeri aki to fuyu to ni iro ya wakuran |
The white chrysanthemums A deeper violet Have taken on; Are autumn and winter, then Divided by their hues? |
501
Right.
霜枯の菊にしあらば紫に移ろふ色も嬉しとや見む
| shimogare no kiku ni shiaraba murasaki ni utsurou iro mo ureshi to ya mimu |
If frost-burned Chrysanthemums there were, then To violet, Would a shift of hue Be a source of joy? |
The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.
502
The Right state that the Left’s poem expresses the topic only in its initial part. The Left comment that the Right’s poem is ‘little different from’ [Minamoto no] Koremitsu (d.1127)’s poem:
霜枯るゝ花とも見ずは白菊の移ろふ色を歎かさらまし
| shimogaruru hana to mo mizu wa shiragiku no utsurou iro o nagekazaramashi |
If frost-burned Flowers I failed to spot, White chrysanthemums’ Shifting hues Might not cause me grief… |
Shunzei’s judgement: The criticism that ‘the Left’s poem expresses the topic only in its initial part’ is pointless. It is common practice [tsune no narai] in poetry for the topic to be mentioned the initial part of a poem, and not in the latter; or not mentioned initially and then referred to in the final section. This section, too, just as in the Right’s poem in Winter I: 9, follows the Theory of the Five Elements. On the fact of the Right’s poem resembling Koremitsu’s: as I have said before, it is difficult to entirely avoid reference to poems outside of the Anthologies. However, if this is a poem on the topic of ‘lingering chrysanthemums’ from the Poetry Contest held in the younger years of the Lord of Hosshōji, that is all the more reason to avoid it. Thus, although in form [sama de] it may be somewhat lacking, the Left’s poem is most tasteful [yū ni haberubeshi]. The Left wins.