Known or not known—
Why should we idly divide
And speak of such things?
Feeling alone surely is
The guide upon the way.
- Meaning
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Known or unknown—why should one make such needless distinctions? When people come to know each other and meet, it is feeling alone that serves as the guide.
- Commentary
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99. Not That I Did Not See
On a day when a trial of horseback archery was held at Ukon no Baba, there was a woman in a carriage on the opposite side. Her face could faintly be seen through the gap in the bamboo blind. A man who was a Middle Captain composed a poem and sent it to her.
The poem was the woman’s reply to the man’s poem: “Not that I saw you, yet not that I saw you not—still you are dear to me; without cause today perhaps I gaze on and pass the day.”
After this, the man learned who the woman was and they came to meet.
To the man who had fallen in love with a woman whose identity he did not know, she gently advises him that if he truly wishes to meet her, he should simply follow his feelings.
The Middle Captain was Ariwara no Narihira, and this exchange of poems between the man and the woman is also included in the Kokinshū and the Yamato Monogatari.
- Source
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Ise Monogatari
- Other
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