Left (Win).
雲の上に待來し今日の白菊は人の詞の花にぞ有ける
| kumo no ue ni machikoshi kyō no shiragiku wa hito no kotoba no hana ni zo arikeru |
Above the clouds Long have we waited for this day, when The white chrysanthemums Are the words in which folk Blossom forth! |
455
Right.
今日といへば八重咲く菊を九重に重ねし跡もあらはれにけり
| kyō to ieba yae saku kiku o kokonoe ni kasaneshi ato mo arawarenikeri |
On this day Upon the eight-fold blooming chrysanthemums, A nine-fold layer Was laid – a trace of it Appearing… |
456
The Right have no criticisms to make of the Left’s poem. The Left state that the Right’s ‘Upon the eight-fold blooming chrysanthemums, a nine-fold layer’ (yae saku kiku o kokonoe ni) is lifted wholesale from an earlier famous poem.
Shunzei’s judgement: Both Left and Right charmingly express the conception [kokoro wa okashikuhaberu] of the Chrysanthemum Festival, but the Left’s ‘Are the words in which folk blossom forth!’ (hito no kotoba no hana ni zo arikeru) has a slightly better air about it at present.