Lest your footprints reveal our tryst.
(2692)
305
if I have to pine away
Daily in love's agony,
Fain I'd be a clod of earth,
Which she walks upon
In her garden morn and eve.
(2693)
306
As a pheasant flies
O'er a Lofty mountaintop
Straight to his mate,
So straightway should I fall in love
With a girl whom I've just glimpsed?
(2710)
307
As a mountain stream
Rushing down a rugged cliff
Dashes against rocks and breaks,
So my heart in pieces breaks
On nights when I can't meet my love.
(2716)
308
Fain I'd be an isle
Dashed against by raging waves
Breaking into foam,
if I could e'er be released
From the gnawing pains of Love.
(2733)
309
If I could be free
From the deadly pain of love,
Fain I'd be a grain of sand,
Drifting with the tide
Up and down the briny shore.
(2734)
310
Where the ospreys fly,
Waves rise and fall.
Never can I tell
Where my love for her will wend
Any more than where the waves will go.
(2739)
311
There must be a lull
In the billows which arise
in the mighty deep.
But the billows of my love for you,
Ever raging, know no lull.
(2741)
312
Could I be freed
From my gnawing love for him,
Fain a diver I would be
Gathering seaweed and shells
In the nearby bay.
(2743)
313
I'm a river barge
Heavily laden with reeds.
Since l met my love,
She has boarded me,
Heavy on my heart.
(2748)
314
When we chance to meet,
Only cast a smile at me.
That should be all.
See that no one ever suspects
That we are Lovers.
(2762)
315
I am so distraught with Love
That l feel I shall die.
But I'll try to keep alive,
For death leaves no hope
For me ever to meet my Love.
(2764)
316
Tell my Love
That I've waited for her,
Stamping my feet
Till the rank weeds by the road
Are as dead as winter grass.
(2776)
317
Little do l care
With whom I may Lie,
But as seaweed sways to the tide,
So my heart has swayed to you.
Now I wait for your sweet will.
(2782)
318
Flowers, coming into bloom,
Pass away in time.
But my ardent love,
Ever flaming in my heart,
Knows no time to rest or cease.
(2785)
319
In my nightly dream
Appears my sweet Love,
Fresh and beautiful
As a fragrant rose in pink attire,
With a smile upon her face.
(2786)
320
When l turn my eyes
Toward where my love dwells,
I feel our love
Will continue always,
To where the earth meets the sky.
(2787)
321
As a string is cut,
So I've broken with him.
If I'm still distraught
By my love for him,
There's no choice for me but to die.
(2789)
322
Day is dawning now.
Cocks crow in the yard.
Let them crow on loudly.
What do I care for dawn?
I sleep alone.
(2800)
323
When I sleep alone,
Missing my darling love,
How long is the night?
Long as a mountain pheasant's tail
Trailing on the ground.
(2802)
324
I wish to sleep more
On the pillow of your arm.
But the plovers cry,
Telling us that day has dawned,
When my husband of one night
Has to rise and go away.
(2807)
325
I will await my Love,
Patient far into the night,
Even till the moon
Now rising, descends Low
Into the western sky.
(2820)
326
As you reap sedge
That you do not mean to plait
Into useful things,
So you dally with my Love
With no mind to marry me.
(2837)
327
Would that l could float
Like a spray of Leaves
Drifting downstream
To the shallows of the brook
Where a maiden fair stands.
(2838)
328
I awaited him,
Hoping he might come at any time-
While the night wore away,
My long anxious vigil
Gave way to bitter tears and grief.
(2864)
329
If I had a love
To share my bed,
The longer the cold night lasts,
The happier
I would be.
(2865)
330
Who is it that is
Talking to a wedded woman?
Untie my sash for him?
Is that what he means? Oh, no.
Who is it that talks like that?
(2866)
331
in the throes of Love,
I'm ready to fade away,
But I'll try to stay alive,
For my death will dash my hope of
Ever again meeting my love.
(2868)
332
People's talk of us
Has wounded you—
You said you hated
To encounter me
Even in the street.
(2871)
333
For long I have not seen my love,
And I am in anguish.
A rumor going round
All the louder strikes my ears
And the sharper stings my heart.
(2872)
334
Once I thought myself
Nearly equal
To heaven and earth.
Captive now to female charms,
Where is my bravado?
(2875)
335
Even since the night
When I threw myself in my lover's arms,
The white heat of love
Into shreds has torn my heart,
leaving me no peace of mind.
(2878)
336
Could my late wife
Return to life for even a day!
In my dreams I sleep with her,
But 'tis of little solace,
For I know she's no more.
(2880)
337
Could I even catch
A distant glimpse of you,
The agony of my love
Would abate-
Else I'll die of Longing.
(2883)
338
I am all but dead
With the pain of love.
I may live today,
But from tomorrow
How shall I keep alive?
(2884)
339
Leaving home at morn,
You return home at eve.
Yet, all the time
You are away,
For you I Long.
(2893)
340
Captivated now
By enthralling female charms,
I'm entirely bereft
Of all sense and wit—
I shall die a slave to love.
(2907)
341
Were you not so dear to me,
My heart and soul
And even my life,
Why should I long for you,
Who are now another's wife?
(2909)
342
Say, was it not you
Who proposed to meet me?
And yet when we meet,
Bashfully behind your hands,
You conceal your lovely face.
(2916)
343
Was it in my dream
That my darling was here
Or did she really come?
So bemused by love,
I'm puzzled which it was.
(2917)
344
Till the day we meet again
I will never undo the knot
She tied in my inner sash,
While I tied a knot in hers
As our mutual pledge of love.
(2919)
345
Mortal as I am,
If l die, I do not care.
What most concerns me
Is that if l die,
Nor more can I see my love.
(2920)
The following is a woman's reply poem.
346
Maiden as I am,
Devoted and strong
Is my love for you.
What most concerns me
Is to see you always.
(2921)
347
Eventide brings
The Lover of my heart to me.
Doubtless, this is why
When evening comes,
My heart throbs and pounds with joy.
(2922)
The following two poems were composed by a woman as gibes at a much younger man who wooed her, proposing marriage.
348
Nurses are for babes.
Do you seek a nurse for a babe?
O 1 am surprised.
Are you still suckling at the breasts
Do you woo me as a nurse?
(2925)
349
Deeply I regret
That I have grown too old to be
Your beloved nurse.
Else I'd gladly
Attend to your wants and needs.
(2926)
350
The agony grows
As l sit and wait for him.
When dark night arrives,
If he's Late coming here,
Forthwith will I go to him.
(2931)
351
Living not far off,
Time and again we meet.
How trying it is!
You're a Lady of high birth;
We never have a friendly talk.
(2934)
352
Now I fear I'll die.
So consumed
With ardent love for you,
My heart is never at rest
For a single night or day.
(2936)
353
Mischievous wild talk,
Idle and unfounded and spread about,
Irritates us.
So I see him with my eyes,
But never do I meet him.
(2938)
354
I'm so Lost in love
That I cannot tell
When 'tis morn and when 'tis eve.
Better to die
That my mind may be at ease.
(2940)
355
Now I'm weak with age,
I never see this old white robe
But it brings memories of sweet days past.
Clad in this Long-sleeved robe,
I pledged the troth of love
With my dear sweet one.
(2952)
356
"You are my dear love,"
Say you. These are hackneyed words.
And yet for all that,
Your repeated assurances
Make me think it is true.
(2961)
357
I never see these seams
But that I am moved to tears.
Handing me this robe, she said,
"Look at this and think of me,
If for years you cannot return.
(2967)
358
Could I clearly see your face
As I do mine in the mirror,
It might calm
My blazing love for you,
Which consumes my body and soul.
(2979)
359
It is many months now
Since I have seen
My darling love, of whom
Never do 1 tire or become sated.
Now I feel as good as dead.
(2980)
360
Since our souls commune,
I may meet and sleep with her.
But her mother
Keeps careful guard,
As with deer and boar
That ravage the farms.
(3000)
361
"I await the moon
Rising above the hills,"
Said I to a man nearby.
But in fact it was my Love
That I had long awaited.
(3002)
362
How I Long and pine
For a lovely lady
Whom I vaguely glimpsed
In the darkness of early dawn
When a crescent moon had just set.
(3003)
363
Not until the orb of night,
Shining over sky and earth,
Loses its bright Light
Will my blazing love
Lose its heat and die away.
(3004)
364
As the glassy stream
Of the Saho flows softly,
So I wish to stay in your arms
in this calm, happy peace
Till we bathe in morrow's light.
(3010)
365
Hot was my breast
With flaming Love
For my darling girl-
As l opened the door at dawn,
Written on Water Page 10