"As fickle as the mountain gusts
That on the moor I've met,
'Twere best to think no more of thee
And let thee go. But yet
I never can forget!"
Old age seems a favourite subject. Tsure Yuki Kino was a nobleman at Court and one of the great classical poets. He died in the middle of the tenth century.
"The village of my youth is gone,
New faces meet my gaze;
But still the blossoms at the gate,
Whose perfume scents the ways,
Recall my childhood's days."
Jealousy is the theme of many of the verses:
"Where many a tree
Crowns Takasu Hill,
Does my wife see
My vanishing sleeve
And so take leave?"
Of the many picture poems, this is considered one of the best:
"Out of the East,
Over the field,
The dawn is breaking breaking—
I turn to the West,
And the moon hangs low!"
Another picture poem is by the late Emperor:
"Kie nokoru
Matsu no kokage no
Shirayuki ni
Ariake no tsuki!"