"To fall in love with womankind
Is my unlucky fate:
If only it were otherwise,
I might appreciate
Some men, whom now I hate."
The second, by Kanemori Taira, was composed in 949 a. d.:
"Alas! the blush upon my cheek,
Conceal it as I may,
Proclaims to all that I'm in love,
Till people smile and say—
Where are thy thoughts to-day?"
The last one was written in the same year by the minister of the Kawara district of Kyoto:
"Ah, why does love distract my thoughts,
Disordering my will!
I'm like the pattern on the cloth
Of Michinoku hill,
All in confusion still."
Japan has not been without her women poets. Lady Horikawa, who wrote this bit of verse, lived in the twelfth century and was in attendance on the Dowager Empress Taiken. The poem is dated 1142, and, like the others, was translated by Mr. Porter.
"My doubt about his constancy
Is difficult to bear;
Tangled this morning are my thoughts
As is my long black hair.
I wonder—does he care?"
The Empress Jito lived in the seventh century. She was the daughter of an Emperor and became Empress on the death of her husband, the Emperor Tennu. During her reign saké was first made. She wrote:
"The spring has gone, the summer's come,
And I can just descry
The peak of Ama-no-kagu,
Where angels of the sky
Spread their white robes to dry."
Daini-No-Sammi, who was the daughter of a poet, composed this pretty verse: