Maidens spinning thread

Left

てにかけてくるなつごとにわぎもこがおほくのいとをひきてけるかな

te ni kakete kuru natsu goto ni wagimoko ga ōku no ito o hikitekeru kana

Through her hands a’running Again, with every summer’s coming, My darling girl So much thread Has spun!

7

Right

てもたゆくひきおくいとのたえまなくきみがみちよのさかゆべきかな

te mo tayuku hiki’oku ito no taemanaku kimi ga michiyo no sakayubeki kana

Her weary hands A’spinning thread, Never ending My Lord’s reign through three thousand years Of prosperity!

8

‘Maidens spinning’ is about their expertise at it, and is not something that you need to need to ponder over and over like a peasant’s hempen thread or struggle to pull apart like a hardened silk cocoon, but both Left and Right really seem to have spun things out, and I feel that, although there’s an air of elegance to start with, the diction at the end of both poems is confused, so I would make these a tie.

hidari migi hiku te mo tayuku tatsu ito wa izukata e ka wa yorubekaruran

Left and Right, The hands spinning wearily, Produce thread that Heads off but, I wonder where to?

Judge 4