Of Old Japan
The moon last night was very bright,
In a frosty morning
I await
With hope unwarranted
One who cannot be expected.
His letter seemed not to have been suggested by hers, and she was pleased that His Highness had been in the same mood with herself.
Her poem:
I did not sleep, gazing at the moon all night
But the dawning of the day
Was in whiteness of hoar-frost.
You are angry with the page. He is very sorry, and it awakes my pity.
The morning sun shines on the frost
So, like the sun, your face.
Two or three days passed without a word from him. Her heart was in his promise which gave her hope, but she could not sleep for anxiety. While lying awake in bed, she heard a knocking at the gate. It was just dawn. "What can it be?" she wondered, and sent a servant to inquire. It was the Prince's letter. It was an unusual hour for it and she wondered sorrowfully whether the Prince had been conscious of her emotion. She opened her shutter and read this letter in the moonlight:
Do you see that the little night opens[1]
And on the ridge of the mountain, serenely bright,
Shines the moon of a night of Autumn?
The bridge across the garden pond was clearly seen
- ↑ It is the Japanese way to say night opens instead of day dawns. The word little means nothing but a feeling of endearment.
