Left.
今日やさはしばしば戀のひまならん見るに慰む思なりせば
| kyō ya sa wa shibashiba koi no himanaran miru ni nagusamu omoi nariseba |
Today, I wonder if From this long love’s pain I will have respite? I would that the sight of you calmed These passions, but… |
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Right.
色に出づるつらき氣色を見ても猶思かへらぬ心なりけり
| iro ni izuru tsuraki keshiki o mitemo nao omoikaeranu kokoro narikeri |
The colours now emerge Of your cruelty, clearly; I see them, yet Unable to go back upon its love Is my heart… |
The Provisional Master of the Empress’ Household Office.
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The Gentlemen of both Left and Right state: we find nothing worth mentioning in the other team’s poem.
Shunzei’s judgement: in the Left’s poem, the diction of the final phrase ‘these passions, but…’ (omoi nariseba) seems somehow contrary to the sense. I wonder what the colours of the ‘clear cruelty’ (tsuraki keshiki) would look like! The poems must be considered to be of the same level.