Left (Win)

すみよしのまつにとはばやおいがよにこよひばかりの月はみきやと

sumiyoshi no matsu ni towaba ya oi ga yo ni koyoi bakari no tsuki wa miki ya to

To Sumiyoshi’s Pines I would ask, Through all the ancient ages of your lives, Is tonight, simply, The finest moon you’ve seen?

Kyō, in service to the Regent’s Household[i]
29

Right

すみよしのうらさえわたる月みればまつのこかげぞくもりなりける

sumiyoshi no ura saewataru tsuki mireba matsu no kokage zo kumori narikeru

When across Sumiyoshi’s Bay, so chill crossing The moon I see, The shadows from the pines are The only clouds.

Lord Minamoto no Suehiro
Junior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade
Without Office[ii]
30

While the Left’s poem has no remarkable elements, I must say that the configuration of ‘tonight, simply’ is pleasant. As for the Right’s poem, in addition to it being quite commonplace, when composing about the brightness of the moon, to say that something is the only cloud, if you say that ‘the shadows from the pines are / The only clouds’ it certainly sounds as if that’s what they are at the very least [and thus imply that Sumiyoshi is cloudy, when the topic is the brightness of the moon], so I make the Left the winner.

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[i] Sessho no ie no Kyō摂政家卿

[ii] San’i jūgoijō Minamoto ason Suehiro 散位従五位上源朝臣季広