Only life is fickle:
We know not how it will end.
But promises shall endure
As long as the pine-tree at Suminoye.[25]
O my beloved, I spoke to you of what I did not heartily wish. You are too literal. I am sorry for that.
Yet the lady's thought lingered over that sad intention and she lamented much. Once she was making haste to set out when she received the Prince's letter:
Oh, I longed for it, though I had just seen it
A yamato-nadeshiko[26] growing in the hedge of a mountain-dwelling.
It was painful to her present mind, yet she replied:
If you love, come and see,
Even the thousand swift gods will not forbid
Those who follow in the Way.
He smiled over the poem. As he was reading sutras those days he sent the following poem:
The way of meeting is not god-forbidden.
But I am on the seat of the Law
And cannot leave it.
Her answer:
Then will I go thither to seek you,
Only do you enlarge the seat!