[141] The play in the original is on the word Matsu, which has the double signification of "a pine-tree" and "to wait."
[142] Mount Lover and Mount Lady-love (Se-yama and Imo-yama) in the province of Yamato.
[143] The reference in this song is to an old superstition. It used to be supposed that the chance words caught from the mouths of passers-by would solve any doubt on questions to which it might otherwise be impossible to obtain an answer. This was called the yufu-ura, or "evening divination," on account of its being practised in the evening. It has been found impossible in this instance to follow the original very closely.
ELEGIES
ON THE DEATH OF THE MIKADO TENJI[144]
By One of His Ladies
Alas! poor mortal maid! unfit to hold
High converse with the glorious gods above,[145]
Each morn that breaks still finds me unconsoled,
Each hour still hears me sighing for thy love.