One Thousand Summers

The riot of threads for decking out the sacred incense led one of the princesses to remark upon the stubborn way their own lives had of spinning on.* Catching sight of a spool through a gap in the curtains, Kaoru recognized the allusion.  ‘Join my tears as beads,’ † he said softly. They found it very affecting, this suggestion that the sorrow of Lady Ise had been even as theirs; yet they were reluctant to answer. To show that they had caught the reference might seem pretentious.‡ But an answering reference immediately came to them: they could not help thinking of Tsurayuki, whose heart had not been ‘that sort of thread’, and who had likened it to a thread all the same as he sang the sadness of a parting that was not a bereavement.[*] Old poems, they could see, had much to say about the unchanging human heart. － Murasaki Shikibu  紫式部,  The Tale of Genji  (源氏物語  Genji monogatari ) Chapter 47 “Trefoil Knots” (総角  Agemaki ) *  Anonymous,  Kokinshū  806: This life goes on, however sad we ar

When the frosty* bridge of magpie feather comes into sight, the night is nearly past. 

When I must hide these burning feelings, I feel as though my body is on fire with Ibuki mugwort.   

No matter where I stand on the shores of Tago, I can look up and see white snow, it keeps falling on the cap of Mount Fuji. 

Gust of wind carries leaves from the trees, giving the name of storm to the mountain wind.    

Feel the love deepen over time, like the stream widening into a river as it descends Mount Tsukuba.

The autumn paddy shacks have rough thatching and my sleeves are wet with dew*.

Said night was young when the false rooster crowed, but the gates of Osaka remained shut.