Both Right and Left can find no fault with the other’s poem.
Shunzei’s judgement: Both poems refer to Mount Miwa, and it is, perhaps a bit regrettable [kuchioshiku] that the Left uses the phrase ‘How false! For proof’ (itsuwari no shirushi)in this context. In the Right’s ‘my gate where cedars stand’ (sugi tatsu kado) , tatsu sounds insufficient as diction [kotoba, koto tarazu kikoyu]. The Left’s poem, moreover, is tasteful in form [utazama yū naru].
When Lord [Fujiwara no] Nakahira, whom she had known and been meeting for some time, became more distant towards her, she decided to go to her father, the Governor of Yamato, and, composing this, sent it to Nakahira:
みわの山いかにまち見む年ふともたづぬる人もあらじと思へば
miwa no yama
ika ni matimimu
tosi Fu tomo
tadunuru Fito mo
arazi to omoFeba
On the mount of Miwa
Why should I wait?
Years may pass, yet
Would you come enquiring-
I think not!