Diaries of Court Ladies
On waking I cannot think.
I wish that those were only dreams [of which we talked last night].
And on the margin she wrote:
We made our vows so earnestly,
Yet must these vows yield
To the common fate of the changing world.
I am sorry to think of it.
The Prince read it and made answer:
I wanted to write to you first—
I will not think it real,
Those sad things were only dreams
Dreamed in a night of dreams.
I wish that you would think so too. You dwell too much upon nothing.
Only life is fickle:
We know not how it will end.
But promises shall endure
As long as the pine-tree at Suminoye.[1]
O my beloved, I spoke to you of what I did not heartily wish. You are too literal. I am sorry for that.
Yet the lady's thought lingered over that sad intention and she lamented much. Once she was making haste to set out when she received the Prince's letter:
Oh, I longed for it, though I had just seen it
A yamato-nadeshiko[2] growing in the hedge of a mountain-dwelling.
It was painful to her present mind, yet she replied:
If you love, come and see,
Even the thousand swift gods will not forbid
Those who follow in the Way.
