Page:Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan.djvu/79

 again peacefully after this parting"—and I thought the Buddha would pity and grant my prayer.

It was midwinter. It rained all day. In the night a cloud-turning wind blew terribly and the sky cleared. The moon became exquisitely bright, and it was sad to see the tall reeds near the house broken and blown down by the wind.

["Their fate is like my own," is intangibly expressed in this poem.]

A messenger arrived from the East.

Father's letter:

To see that letter is a sadder thing than to have seen the forest.

[The poem sent in return presents difficulties in the Rh