Diaries of Court Ladies
The long leaves of the reed are easily bent,
So I will not forcibly persuade it,
But leave it to the wind.
In this way [composing poems] we passed [the hours] talking idly. Afterwards this lady separated from the Court and left us. She remembered that night and sent me word—
That moonless, flowerless winter night
It penetrates my thought and makes me dwell on it—
I wonder why?
It touched my heart, for I also was thinking of that night:
In my dreams the tears of that cold night are still frozen.
But these I weep away secretly.
The Princess still called my stepmother by the name of Kazusa[1]—Governor's lady. Father was displeased that that name was still used after she had become another man's wife, and he made me write to her about it:
The name of Asakura in a far-off country,
The Court now hears it in a divine dance-song:—
My name also is still somewhere heard [but not honourably]. [2]
One very bright night, after the full moon, I attended the Princess to the Imperial Palace. I remembered that the Heaven Illuminating Goddess was enthroned within, and wanted to take an opportunity to kneel before the altar. One moon-bright night
