Jewelled thread of life.
したにのみおもへばくるし玉のをのたえてみだれん人なとがめそ
shita ni nomi omoeba kurushi tama no o no taete midaren hito na togame so | Simply beneath the surface Lies my passion, so ‘tis painful— My jewelled thread of life Might snap in tangles and Let no one blame me for it![i] |
Tomonori

[i] A minor variant of this poem, which replaces omeba (feel [passion, so’] with koureba (‘feel love, so’) occurs in Kokinshū (XIII: 677).