Left (Win).
忘れじの契を頼む別かな空行く月の末を數へて
| wasureji no chigiri o tanomu wakare kana sora yuku tsuki no sue o kazoete |
Not to forget I promised – trust that On our parting. The moon’s transit through the sky Is the number of our meeting. |
719
Right.
風吹かば峰に別れん雲をだにありし名殘の形見とも見よ
| kaze fukaba mine ni wakaren kumo o dani arishi nagori no katami to mo miyo |
If the wind should blow, Parting from the peak, Even the clouds My memories Seem to represent! |
720
The Gentlemen of the Right state: the Left’s poem is most moving. The Right’s poem, the Gentlemen of the Left state, is fine.
Shunzei’s judgement: the Left’s poem has one counting to the end of the moon’s transits through the sky, while the Right has clouds parting from a mountain peak being the poet’s thoughts given form. Both poems are elegant in configuration and diction, but the Right’s ‘even the clouds’ (kumo ni dani) does not fit with the ending. The Left maintains its connections from beginning to end. Thus, I make it the winner.