Yo no naka yo
Michi koso nakere
Omoi iru
Yama no oku ni mo
Shika zo naku naru.
TOSHI-NARI, A SHINTO OFFICIAL IN ATTENDANCE ON THE EMPRESS DOWAGER
From pain and sorrow all around
There ’s no escape, I fear;
To mountain wilds should I retreat,
There also I should hear
The cry of hunted deer.
Toshi-nari was a celebrated poet and nobleman in the reign of the Emperor Gotoba. He, however, gave up his position at Court and entered the church in the year 1176. He was the father of the writers of verses Nos. 94 and 97, and died in the year 1204, at the age of ninety-one.
