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A Hundred Verses from Old Japan · 81 of 101

80. Lady Horikawa, in Attendance on the Dowager Empress Taiken: Taiken Mon-in Ho

80

Lady Horikawa, in Attendance on the Dowager Empress Taiken

Taiken Mon-in Horikawa

Nagakaran Kokoro mo shirazu Kuro kami no Midarete kesa wa Mono wo koso omoe.

MY doubt about his constancy Is difficult to bear; Tangled this morning are my thoughts, As is my long black hair. I wonder—Does he care?

Lady Horikawa was the daughter of the First Adviser of State, Sane-kyo, who lived about the year 1142. In this verse she is anxiously pondering, how long her lover will continue to be true to her; and she discovers, that her ideas on the subject are as tangled and disordered as her hair is.