Written on Water Page 4
Pray, let me have a glimpse
Of my darling love at home.
(137)
The following elegy indicates that Hitomaro had a wife in the capital whom he had some reason to hide from others' knowledge. From his two long poems, he is presumed to have had two wives.
47
Karu is the town
Where my fair, sweet darling dwells.
Should I often visit her,
Our intimacy would be revealed.
Harboring my love
Hidden deep in my heart
As in the depths of a pool
Girt round by cliffs,
I felt secure
As riding a Large ship,
Confident
That we would meet anon.
One day word was brought.
As the orb of day
Fades away at eventide,
As the bright full moon
Hides behind murky clouds,
So my darLing wife,
Whose embrace was
Smooth as green seaweed,
Had fallen, like an autumn leaf.
At the news of her death,
I did not know
What to say or do.
Hoping to allay
Even a thousandth part
Of my grief,
I betook myself in tears
To the market of Karu,
where my wife was wont to go.
There I watched and listened.
But no trace of her voice was there,
Not even the birds
In the nearby hills were heard.
No face
Resembled hers.
Nothing could 1 do
But call her name
And wave my arms in fain.
(207)
The following lyric is one of two envoys to the preceding long poem.
48
The hillsides are ablaze
With glorious tints of red and gold,
So dense that
i've strayed from the path
To the grassy grove
Of my beloved wife.
(208)
The following two short elegies (Nos. 49 and 50) are the envoys of a long elegy on his late wife, which is not included here.
49
Full bright shines the moon,
As it did this night Last year.
Distant has become the day
When my late dear wife and I
Shared the joy of watching the moon.
(211)
50
Burying the corpse
Of my darling wife
In a dreary mountain grave,
in deep grief,
Like one dead, I came down the trail.
(212)
51
My beloved wife
Must await my coming home,
Little knowing that I lie
Pillowed amidst the crags
Of wild Mt. Kamo.
(223)
52
Our great Lord of lords,
Gracious holy god,
Dwells above the rainy clouds,
Where the thunder rolls and peals
Amid flashes of Lightning.
(235)
53
Plovers' plaintive cries,
Sweeping o'er the evening waves
Of Lake Biwa,
Overwhelm our hearts,
With yearninas for sweet byaone days.
(266)
54
Men of yore as well,
Pining after their sweet loves,
Must needs have passed
Many painful sleepless nights,
Just as have I.
(497)
55
Swept away
By the haste of departure,
l Left without a gentle word
With my dear wife.
Fathomless is my yearning.
(503)
56
In the ocean of the skies,
Waves of clouds rise and faLL—
Fair and clear the lunar boat,
Passing in and out of clouds,
Floats amid the sea of stars.
(1068)
57
Far above the roar
Of the rapids of the stream,
About the peak
Of graceful Mt. Yutsuki,
Hover heavy clouds.
(1088)
58
We ore Like foam,
Always coming, going
On the stream
Rushing down the vole
Of Mt. Makimuku.
(1269)
59
For my dear one's attire,
I hove put my heart
Into weaving this white cloth.
When spring comes,
What color shall I dye the robe?
(1281)
60
The year has worn away;
Now in the dead of night
Wild geese cry
Across starry skies
Where sails the bright full moon.
(1701)
61
Never can I see the beach
Where I passed a happy moment
With my dear wife
But I'm overwhelmed with grief.
Last autumn, she passed away,
Like an autumn leaf.
(1796)
62
Sorrow fills my heart
As I come to this strand,
This lovely seashore,
Which l once enjoyed with my dear wife,
Years ago, when she lived.
(1798)
63
In the vernal fields
Warblers sweetly sing and part,
While we sadly weep and part.
As you return home,
Keep me in your heart.
(1890)
64
With the coming of spring,
The lovely soul of my dear girl,
Fair and pliable
As a willow leaf,
Has now taken hold of me.
(1896)
65
Every time I see her
With her pink cheeks
Fair as the Weaver Maiden,
I yearn for her,
Wed to another though she is.
(1999)
66
How brief
Our ardor,
After our Long-pent love.
Too short,
Our time together,
Yet you ask me for your sash.
(2023)
67
What is there to regret,
If I couLd but hear the voice
Of my darling love,
Sweet as the songs of birds
in the tinted autumn hills?
(2239)
68
The girl for whom I long-
Let her die. What do I care?
Many say that
However Long I live,
She'll never give her heart to me.
(2355)
69
At daybreak you rise
And through the dewy field go,
With your robe hem wet with dew,
l will also rise betimes,
With my hem wet with dew.
(2357)
70
What would it avail
Should I Live to old age?
Even should I Live long,
'Tis well nigh impossible
For me to meet my love.
(2358)
71
Shunning the public eye,
Seldom do I meet him,
Who is my love and life.
Were I a breeze,
l could sport about him.
(2359)
72
Never, since I Left
My mother's tender care,
Has my plight
Been so sad and dire.
I am entirely lost.
(2368)
; 73
As all other women do,
And I pass sad, sleepLess nights,
Dying for a sight of you,
Who are everything to me.
(2369)
74
"Let her die from Love
If she will. What should 1 care
If her heart breaks?"
That must be what he thinks.
Not a word he writes to me.
(2370)
75
There's no time of the day
When I don't think of you.
But at eventide,
So intense becomes my love
That I know not what to do.
(2373)
76
I so hope
That those who see
The light of day after me
Stray not away from the beaten path
Into the thorny path of love.
(2375)
77
So Lost in Love
Night and day
Gone is my sense
Of life
Worthy of a stalwart man.
(2376)
78
No more do I care to live
On the painful rack
Of unrequited love.
How I wish I'd died
Ere I lost my heart to her!
(2377)
79
I know well enough
That he'll never come to me,
And my love is all in vain.
Yet 1 wonder how it is
That I keep Loving him.
(2378)
80
Walking back and forth,
Looking toward the ferry,
Anxiously I await
The dear beloved of my heart,
Coming for our tryst.
(2379)
81
So ardent
Is my desire to meet you—
For the two nights past
I have pined away
As if for a thousand years.
(2381)
82
Crowds pass along
The royal city's roads,
Dazzling in the sun.
But among them only one
Is the lover of my heart.
(2382)
83
Were you to visit me
Every night,
Our Love would be revealed.
How I wish this happy night
Was a thousand years long!
(2387)
84
O that this sweet night
Would never pass away-
After you are gone,
I will be in agony
Till you return to me in the depths of darkness.
(2389)
85
It was but Last night
That I glimpsed her.
But beyond all help,
This morn I am consumed
By flaming love.
(2391)
86
Since I've known my Love,
AIl the dearer has she grown.
I Long for her
Far more than when I
But saw her at a distance.
(2392)
87
Merely a single glimpse,
And gone—
That instant
Has left me worn away,
Thin as a morning shadow.
(2394)
88
In all my days,
Never have I seen a girl
Of such Lovely grace.
O that I could please my eyes
With another sight of her!
(2396)
89
There goes my Love,
Casting not a glance at me,
Seeming to say,
"Let him die from love. Who cares?"
Looking prim, she passes my gate.
(2401)
90
Now the yeaar is at an end.
And my Life is at an end.
But I'll never forget
My sweet one, with whom, when young,
I pledged my troth of Love.
(2410)
91
My underclothes
Somehow hove come Loose.
Never shall I disclose our love
Till l see him face to face
And confirm his love for me.
(2413)
92
As the sky we see
And the earth on which we life
Have no bounds or end,
So our passion is endless.
We'll never cease to meet and love.
(2419)
93
Gazing at the moon—
It shines the same everywhere.
So our love is e'er the same,
Though lofty mountains
Keep my wife and me apart.
(2420)
94
To be sure, I have a horse,
But to meet you secretly,
I have come on foot
Across the hills and vales,
Driven by my Love for you.
(2425)
95
In vain is my life,
Like a word written on water.
Praying to the gods,
l have vowed
That I'll meet my darling Love.
(2433)
96
Though she lives
At the end of the earth
Where heaven meets the firmament
And clouds are born and rise,
Yet with whom should 1 lie
But the darling of my heart?
(2451)
97
Gazing at the moon,
My distant Love
Must think of me.
Let no speck of cloud
Dim the lunar brilliance.
(2460)
98
I am Lost in Love for my dear one,
And meLancholy ruLes me.
In my tear-fiLLed eyes,
Even the grass by my abode
Droops and withers.
(2465)
99
As a snowbell fair
Heavy Laden with clear dew
Bends its head,
So I hang my head,
Heavy Laden with deep Love.
(2469)
100
As you bind
Stout sedge on the hills,
If you bind me
To a pledge of Love,
Then l wiLL tryst with you.
(2477)
101
Would that I couLd see
My dear Love, who remains hidden
At home,