Of Old Japan
He replied:
Sorrows of love were less each yesterday,
But how can those vanished days be caught again?
There is no other way but to resolve to come to me.
She was still cautious and could not take things so easily. She passed many days in musing. By this time the coloured leaves [of Autumn] had all fallen. The sky was clear and bright. One evening as the sun was setting she felt very lonely and wrote to him:
You art always my consolation,
Yet with the end of day sadness comes.
He replied:
All are sad when the day ends,
Yet are you sadder than any—
You who wait?
I can sympathize with you and I am coming.
The next morning the frost was very white; he sent to inquire for her, asking, "How are you feeling now?"
She sent a poem:
Not in repose was the night passed;
But the frosty morning
Brought its own charm,
Incomparable.
His answer contained many touching words, and a poem:
To think alone is [not life].
If you were thinking the same thoughts—
She answered:
You are you and I am I,
Yet between your heart and mine is no separation.
Make no such distinctions.
