Of Old Japan
Our words are like these leaves,
Ever coloured deeper and deeper—
And she took it up [completing the 31-syllable poem he had begun]:
Although it is only the pearl dew that deepens them.
The Prince was pleased and thought her not without taste.
He seemed very elegant. He was attired as usual, his underdress exquisite. Her eye was much charmed, and she thought that she was too frivolous [to be thinking about it].
Next day he wrote:
Yesterday I was sorry that you were embarrassed, yet the more attracted by it.
She answered:
The Goddess of Mount Katuragi[1] would have felt so too—
There is no bridge across the way of Kumé.
I did not know what to do.
The messenger came back with his poem:
Were my devotion to be rewarded
How could I stop,
Though bridge were none at Katuragi San.
After that he came oftener, and her tiresome days were lightened.
- ↑ According to an ancient fable, En-no-Shokaku, a great magician who could command even gods, once summoned gods of many mountains to make a stone bridge at Kumé on Mount Katuragi in the Province of Yamato. The goddess of Mount Katuragi was very shy, and, working only at night, never showed herself before others. The magician grew angry with her, and punished her by unveiling her. That was the cause of the failure in the work. (The inmost soul hides itself and works in the dark. If you try to bring it into clear consciousness, you will fail in your work.)
