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A Hundred Verses from Old Japan · 84 of 101

83. Toshi-Nari, A Shinto Official in Attendance on the Empress Dowager: Kwō-tai-

83

Toshi-nari, a Shinto Official in Attendance on the Empress Dowager

KWŌ-TAI-KŌGŪ NO TAIU TOSHI-NARI

Yo no naka yo Michi koso nakere Omoi iru Yama no oku ni mo Shika zo naku naru.

FROM pain and sorrow all around There ’s no escape, I fear; To mountain wilds should I retreat, There also I should hear The cry of hunted deer.

Toshi-nari was a celebrated poet and nobleman in the reign of the Emperor Gotoba. He, however, gave up his position at Court and entered the church in the year 1176. He was the father of the writers of verses Nos. 94 and 97, and died in the year 1204, at the age of ninety-one.