by Donald Keene
To tally the decades
we spent together,
she and I,
I count on my fingers—
one, two, three, four.
Reading this, Aritsune’s friend was deeply moved by his plight. He sent him not only a robe but also some bedding for his wife, together with a poem.
Dear Friend,
during the span
of forty long years,
your wife surely relied
so much on you.
Aritsune replied:
What a gift you sent!
The celestial robes
of a heavenly maiden
that you wore in splendour
will now adorn a nun.
Then, still brimming with joy, Aritsune followed the first poem with another:
Has the autumn come?
There are so many drops
I confuse them with the dew,
but falling on my sleeves
are floods of joyful tears.
17
Fickle Blossoms
Once, after a long time, the man arrived at a certain house to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. His host’s poem:
Though fickle by repute,
these cherry blossoms
waited through the year
to share their beauty
with you, who rarely come.
The reply:
If I had not come today, by tomorrow
the blossoms would scatter like snow,
and even if they had not disappeared,
they would no longer look like flowers,
which fade the way your feelings do.
18
From White to Red
Long ago, a lady of affected ways was living near the man. As she was confident in her ability to write poetry, she decided to test him with a poem. She plucked a chrysanthemum that was turning a reddish colour as it faded and sent it to him with a poem.
On this blossom
where is passion’s red?
For all I can tell
it is as pure as you—
a branch laden with snow.
Pretending that he did not understand the meaning of the poem, the man replied:
Surely the sleeve of the one
who plucked the chrysanthemum
is as beautiful as the flower,
hiding beneath its white
a sensual red.
19
A Raging Gale
Long ago, the man began to frequent the quarters of a lady who served at the palace. After a short time, their affair came to an end, but as they both served at court, the lady still saw the man often; he behaved as if she was not there. The lady’s poem:
You grow as distant
as clouds in the sky,
yet all the while,
here before my eyes,
you are as plain as can be.
The reply:
If I am as distant
as clouds on high,
it is because of a gale
raging on the mountain
where I should like to be.
He sent the poem because the lady had begun to have an affair with another man.
20
No Such Thing as Spring
Long ago, the man fell for a lady of whom he had caught a glimpse in Yamato. He courted and won her, but after some time elapsed, he had to return to the capital, where he was in the service of the emperor. Though the end of spring was approaching, he picked a branch of beautiful red maple leaves on his way and sent them back to the lady with a poem.
I send you this to show
that though it may still be spring,
the leaves have taken on
an autumn red
deep as my love for you.
She timed her answer to arrive after he had returned to the capital.
Your love has faded as quickly
as autumn colours change.
Where you live,
is there no such thing
as spring?
21
Seeds of the Forgetting-Grass
Long ago, the man and a certain lady were deeply in love with each other and had eyes for no one else. But whatever happened, for some trifling reason, the lady despaired of their staying together and decided to leave him. She wrote the following poem on a wall in their house:
If I leave you,
people will surely say
I am thoughtless,
but it is because they know nothing
of the ways of the world.
Then the lady departed. When the man saw what she had written, he was bewildered. Breaking into tears, he thought, ‘I can’t understand. There was nothing that should have created such a distance between us. What could have caused this to happen?’ Wondering where he should begin to look for her, he went out to the entrance gate and gazed all around, but he could find no sign of where she had gone. He returned home and composed a poem:
I have passed
all these years,
my pledge in vain.
Was this all there was
to our love?
Then he became lost in thought. His poem:
I do not know
whether you love me or not,
but a lingering image
of your beauty
haunts me more and more.
After a long time passed, no longer able to bear it, the lady sent the man a poem.
Surely you must think
it is time to let go of me,
but at least I pray you won’t sow
seeds of the forgetting-grass
in the meadow of your heart.
The man replied:
If it was you who sowed
forgetting-grass seeds,
it would mean that you
had loved me up till now—
but you had no need to …
Afterwards, they renewed their correspondence with even greater ardour than before. Then the man sent another poem.
Filled with doubt
that once again
you may forget me,
I feel a sadness like nothing
I have ever known before.
The lady’s reply:
I will disappear
from your life
like a cloud in mid-air
that vanishes in the sky
leaving not a trace.
In the end, despite their poetic interludes, they both took new lovers and became estranged.
22
A Thousand Nights
Long ago, a romance that had scarcely blossomed came to a stop. But perhaps the lady could not forget her beloved, because she sent him this poem:
What misery!
But as I cannot forget you,
I have to admit
that though I hate you,
I also love you too.
The man replied, ‘I told you so.’ His poem:
As we are lovers,
let our hearts be one,
for though the island
parts the water
the river flows forever on.
Despite saying that, he went immediately to spend the night with her. They reminisced about the past and talked of their future. The man’s poem:
If we could gather
a thousand autumn nights into one
and pass ten thousand
of these nights together,
would I ever tire of you?
The lady replied:
If a thousand nights
could be made into one,
I still could not tell you
all the ways I love you
before the cock began to crow.
From that time on, the man visited the lady with even greater passion.
23
The Measuring Well
Long ago, the children of some people living in the countryside used to play with one another in front of their well. But as they grew up, a young man and woman among them became bashful with each o
ther. The young man wanted to take the woman as his wife, and she was equally determined to marry him, to the point that she refused when her parents tried to betroth her to someone else. Her suitor, who lived nearby, sent her a poem.
Since I saw you last
I have grown well beyond the rim
of our measuring well
where we compared our height,
but have you noticed yet?
The girl replied:
My hair that I compared
with yours as a child
now falls below my shoulders.
If not to wed you,
for whom shall I put it up?
The couple exchanged many such poems and, eventually, true to their wishes, became husband and wife.
But after some years passed, the wife’s parents died, and the couple was left with no means of support. Realizing that they could not live in such miserable circumstances, the man took another wife in Takayasu in the province of Kawachi. His first wife saw him off without any apparent resentment, so her husband began to suspect that she had taken another lover. Pretending that he was going to Takayasu, he hid in the shrubbery of the garden and spied on her. Filled with melancholy, his wife applied her make-up with the greatest care and recited a poem.
The Measuring Well
As the wild winds blow
and the white waves rise,
I think of you
crossing Mount Tatsuta
all alone by night.
Hearing her, the man felt his heart fill with love, and he desisted from going to Takayasu.
Later, on a rare occasion when he happened to be back in Takayasu, the lady, who at first had behaved with great delicacy, abandoned all decorum. When he saw her take up the rice paddle and ladle the rice directly into the bowls of her household servants herself, he was filled with disgust and stopped visiting her. The lady’s poem:
I pass my time gazing
at Mount Ikoma
beyond which you live,
so even when it rains
may clouds not cover it.
Then she gazed out in the direction of Yamato, where he lived.
After some time had elapsed, the man sent a message from Yamato: ‘I will visit you.’ She waited for him in joyful anticipation on many occasions, but he did not visit her. The lady wrote:
On so many nights
you said that you’d come,
but they have all passed by;
though I cannot believe in you,
my heart’s still filled with love.
Despite her poem, the man never visited her again.
24
The Bow of the Crescent Moon
Long ago, the man was living in a remote part of the countryside. But, hoping to find employment at court, he decided to leave for the capital and parted sadly from his wife. Three years passed, and his wife despaired of his return. When another man expressed his love earnestly, she declared, ‘Let us be one tonight.’
But on that very day, her former husband returned. ‘Let me in, please,’ he said, knocking on the door. Declining to open it, his wife composed a poem and slipped it out to him.
Three years have passed,
and, weary from waiting
for your return, on this very night
I will share a new pillow
with another man.
Her husband replied:
Like the bow of the crescent moon
my love for you has stretched
over all those months and years—
love your new husband
the way I loved you.
Then the man got ready to leave, but the lady cried:
However the string
of your bow may bend,
mine is stretched
towards you,
as always in the past.
Despite this poem, her husband departed. Heartbroken, the lady pursued him but could not catch up with him and eventually collapsed beside a spring. Using blood draining from her finger, she inscribed a poem on a rock nearby.
The time has come
for me to die as our hearts
are no longer one
and I could not stop you
from leaving me.
Then she breathed her last.
25
The Sleeves of Morning
Long ago, the man sent a poem to a lady, who neither refused him nor agreed to meet him.
The sleeves of morning may get wet
parting bamboo on the autumn plain
returning home from a night with you,
but what makes them wetter still
are all these nights alone.
The fickle lady replied:
Man of the sea,
searching till your legs are weary,
can you not see
that on the shores of my heart
no seaweed grows for you?
26
A Harbour in My Sleeves
Long ago, the man lamented to someone: ‘I could not take as my beloved the lady who lived on the Fifth Avenue.’ After receiving a reply, he wrote a poem.
How could I have imagined it?
Your kind words, like a towering ship,
come suddenly from China
making great waves of tears
in the harbour of my sleeves.
27
Frogs in Pairs
Long ago, the man spent a single night in the company of a lady and then did not visit again. One day, when the slatted bamboo cover had been removed from the lady’s hand basin, she gazed at her reflection in the water. Her poem:
I had thought no one else
could be as wretched as I am.
But look—
under the water
there is another one.
As it happened, her erstwhile lover returned just then and, listening in secret, heard her poem. His response:
I must be the one
you caught sight of
where the water pools,
for even frogs in water
may cry in pairs.
28
Cupped Hands
Long ago, a fickle lady left a man. His poem:
Why has it become so hard
for us to be together?
For we had pledged our love,
like tightly cupped hands
that never let the water spill.
The Cherry Blossom Banquet
29
The Cherry Blossom Banquet
Long ago, the man recited a poem upon being summoned to attend the Cherry Blossom Banquet at the palace of the mother of the crown prince.
I never tire of the blossoms
that each year
I must bid farewell to,
but never with such poignancy
as I part from them tonight.
30
A String of Threaded Gems
Long ago, when the man was able to make love to a lady for only the most fleeting of moments, he sent her a poem:
Our encounter
was as short as the interval
on a string of gems;
so why has your heart
been cold for so long?
31
Sir Clump of Grass
Long ago, the man passed the apartment of a lady of high rank in the palace. The lady must have been feeling very hostile towards him, for she addressed him thus: ‘Well, Sir Clump of Grass, let’s see if you flourish or wither from now on.’ The man retorted:
It is said forgetting-grass
will smother you if you curse
an innocent man,
and you yourself
will be the one forgotten.
Another lady present, overhearing his response, felt quite left out.
32
A Spool of Love
Long ago, the man sent a poem to a lady with whom he had been intimate some years earlier.
Like the threads of linen
that were spun upon a spool
in ancient
times, can’t we wind
back to the way we were,
and let the past be now?
His poem, however, seems to have made little impression on the lady.
33
Reed Ditty
Long ago, the man travelled to Ubara in the province of Settsu to see a lady with whom he was having a tryst. But one day as he prepared to return home, the lady became fearful that he would never visit her again. So the man composed a poem:
Just as the rising tide
covers the reeds
along the shore,
so love surges in my heart
with deepening thoughts of you.
The lady’s reply:
Dear Boatman,
how could you plumb
with your simple pole
the depths of my heart
in its hidden cove?
How did her poem read? Was it a good poem or not for a countrywoman?
34
Tempest
Long ago, the man sent a poem to a cold-hearted lady:
When I try to tell you, I fail,
but if I hold my silence
a tempest rages in my heart;
so it is only to myself
that I can grieve.