Page:The Spirit of Japanese Poetry (Noguchi).djvu/119

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MIBU NO TADAMI
115


"To gaze upon the moon
Is to be sad in a thousand ways,
Though all the Autumn
Is not meant to be my own self's."
Oye no Chizato.


" 'Tis the Spring day
With lovely far-away light.
Why must the flowers fall
With hearts unquiet?"
Ki no Tomonori.


Some commentator says that this Uta poem is the best among all the Uta poems ever written in Japan.


"Alas, my face betrayed
The secret of my love.
All men ask me why
I am so sad."
Taiea no Kanemoei.


"That I love thee
Is known already. Ah, me!
I had been thinking that
No one would know it."
Mibu no Tadami.


This Uta was written, it is said, on the 2nd of Tentoku (957), when the Emperor Reizei gathered