Man’yoshu
43
• •
Do you desire our love to endure?
Then, if only while I see you
After days of longing and yearning,
Pray, speak to me
Sweet words—all you can!
Lady Ōtomo
• •
Oh, the pain of my love that you know not—
A love like the maiden-lily
Blooming in the thicket of the summer moor!
Lady Ōtomo
Addressed to a young woman
Over the river ferry of Saho,
Where the sanderlings cry—
When can I come to you,
Crossing on horseback
The crystal-clear shallows?
Having seen your smile
In a dream by chance,
I keep now burning in my heart
Love’s inextinguishable flame.
How I waste and waste away
With love forlorn—
I who have thought myself
A strong man!
Ōtomo Yakamochi (718-785)
