Diaries of Court Ladies
Had she said she was waiting for me with all her heart,
Without rest towards the house of my beloved
Should I have been impelled!
When I think how lightly you may regard me!
Her answer:
Why should I think lightly of you?
I am a drop of dew
Hanging from a leaf
Yet I am not unrestful
For on this branch I seem to have existed
From before the birth of the world.
Please think of me as like the unstable dew which cannot even remain unless the leaf supports it.
His Highness received this letter. He wanted to come, but days passed without realizing his wish. On the moon-hidden day [last day of month] she wrote:
If to-day passes
Your muffled voice of April, O cuckoo
When can I hear?
She sent this poem, but as the Prince had many callers it could only reach him the next morning.
His answer:
The cuckoo's song in spring is full of pain.
Listen and you will hear his song of summer
Full-throated from to-day,[1]
And so he came at last, avoiding public attention. The lady was preparing herself for temple-going, and in the act of religious purification. Thinking that the rare visits of the Prince betrayed his indifference, and
- ↑ The cuckoo sings with low note in early spring, but when April is passed his voice grows clear and loud. It is a favourite bird in Japan.
