4382813A Hundred Verses from Old Japan — Poem 64William Ninnis PorterFujiwara no Sadayori

64


GON CHŪ-NAGON SADA-YORI

Asaborake
Uji no kawagiri
Tae-dae ni
Araware wataru
Seze no ajiro-gi.


THE ASSISTANT IMPERIAL ADVISER SADA-YORI

So thickly lies the morning mist,
That I can scarcely see
The fish-nets on the river bank,
The River of Uji,
Past daybreak though it be.


The writer was the son of the author of verse No. 55; he died in the year 1004. The River Uji is in the Province of Omi, and drains into Lake Biwa. Seze is a village on the lake-side, and a suburb of the larger town of Otsu. The poet, looking across the river, can hardly make out the fish-nets on the shore at Seze, because of the rising morning mist.