Of Old Japan
His reply:
To see you departing in the morning dew—
Comparing,
It were better to come back in the evening unsatisfied.
Let us drive away such thoughts. I cannot go out this evening on account of the evil spirit [i.e., he might encounter it]. Only to fetch you I venture.
She felt distress because this [sort of thing] could not go on always. But he came with the same palanquin and said, "Hurry, hurry!" She felt ashamed because of her maids, yet stole out into the carriage. At the same place as last night voices were heard, so they went to another building. At dawn he complained of the cock's crowing, and leading her gently into the palanquin, went out [with her]. On the way he said, "At such times as these, always come with me," and she—"How can it always be so?" Then he returned.
Two or three days went by; the moon was wonderfully bright; she went to the veranda to see it and there received a letter:
What are you doing at this moment? Are you gazing at the moon?
Are you thinking with me
Of the moon at the mountain's edge?
In memory lamenting the short sweet night—
Hearing the cock, awake too soon!
More than usually pleasing was that letter, for her thoughts were then dwelling on the bright moon-night when she was unafraid of men's eyes at the Prince's palace.
