Year after year
though they are said to meet thus—
at Tanabata,
the nights they lie together
are but few in number.
- Meaning
- Though it is said that they meet year after year at Tanabata, the nights they lie together are indeed very few.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
This poem was composed on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month.
It is not written from any particular perspective, and its tone is restrained.
Placed alongside the earlier poem—“That pledged heart—how cruel it seems… can such a meeting be called meeting?”—it shares the same theme: the sorrow of meeting only once a year.
- Author
- Oshikochi no Mitsune
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Heaven’s River— not knowing the shallows, I traced the white-breaking waves; before I could cross it all, the dawn had already come.
- That pledged heart— how cruel it seems, that of hers; for Tanabata, to meet but once a year— can such a meeting be called meeting?
- Like threads once lent to the Weaver Maiden’s loom— drawn out and joined thus, shall this love endure so long, stretching through the passing years?
- The one who comes tonight— I will not meet with him; like Tanabata, I might be left to wait so long through such enduring time.