Japanese poetry, which has been described as "the one original product of the Japanese mind," contains many references to woman, her loves, her laments, her passions, her ills. Sometimes the loyalty of a maiden's love is set forth--as in a poem by the Lady Sakanoe in the Manyoshu:
"Full oft he swore with accents true and tender,
'Though years roll by my love shall never wax old,'
And so to him my heart I did surrender,
Clear as a mirror of pure burnished gold."
A large number of the love poems are sensual; yet, pure love breathes in many others, as in A Maiden's Lament, a poem by the Lady Sakanoe, and in the Elegy written by Nibi upon his wife. The poet Sosei, also, has written words that speak to the heart:
"I asked my soul where springs the ill-crowned seed
That bears the herb of dull forgetfulness;
And answer straightway came; th' accursed weed,
Grows in that heart which knows no tenderness."