In boundless desire
lit by the fire of love
this night at least
may you tread the path of dreams
and no one blame us.

Since seeing in my sleep
the one whom I love,
it's these things
called dreams
I've learned to trust.

The plum blossoms
I thought to show
to you, my love,
cannot be told apart
from the falling snow.

That girl
lovely as the little oaks
of Mount Mikamo
in Shimotsukeno —
whose supper will she be fixing?

I'll not die of love
but go on living, it seems,
a grain of sand
floating on the foam
when the tide comes in

Here I thought I was
a big man,
hardly smaller than
earth and heaven —
and yet in love my courage fails

Let me die now,
love,
for in love
not one night, not one day
of peace is mine!

When I love her
so much,
can I watch her pass by
like any other person,
not take her in my arms?

If I buy a horse,
you must go on foot, love —
Let it be!
Though we walk on stones,
you and I will go together!

This is what
the villagers told me:
" Your beloved husband
that you long for so,
from this mountainside
of Kamunabi
where the yellow leaves
scatter in confusion,
riding a horse
black as leopard-flower seeds,
crossed over the river shoals,
seven shoals in all —
We saw your husband
and he looked so sad! " —
that's what they told me.

ENVOY

I shouldn't have asked,
I should have kept still —
why did they have to tell me
the way you looked!