A Hundred Verses from Old Japan · 92 of 101

91. The Regent and Former Prime Minister Go-kyō-goku: Go-kyō-goku Sesshō Saki no

91

THE REGENT AND FORMER PRIME MINISTER GO-KYŌ-GOKU

GO-KYŌ-GOKU SESSHŌ SAKI NO DAIJŌDAIJIN

Kirigirisu Naku ya shimo yo no Samushiro ni Koromo katashiki Hitori kamo nen.

I'M sleeping all alone, and hear The crickets round my head; So cold and frosty is the night, That I across the bed My koromo have spread.

This writer was another of the great Fujiwara family, and died in the year 1206.

The word kirigirisu, a cricket, is supposed to represent its song; the Japanese say that the chirping of crickets means cold weather.

In the picture the poet is sitting up in bed with his arm on his pillow, listening to the crickets; and in the original illustrated edition underneath the verse is drawn a cricket hiding in the grass.