Narihira had been seeing a woman living in the western wing of the palace of the Gojô Empress, and loved her dearly. Shortly after the Tenth day of the First Month, she disappeared off to somewhere else and, though he found out where she was, he could not communicate with her. When Spring came and the plum blossom was in full bloom, on a night when the moon was especially beautiful, he was yearning for the love of the previous year and went back to the western wing and, until the moon was low in the sky, lay upon the bare boards; then he composed the following:
月やあらぬ春や昔の春ならぬわが身ひとつはもとの身にして
| tuki ya aranu Faru ya mukasi no Faru naranu wa ga mi Fitotu Fa moto no mi ni site |
Is this not that moon? And Spring: is as the Spring of old Is it not? Only this body of mine Is as it ever was… |
Ariwara no Narihira
在原業平