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A Hundred Verses from Old Japan (The Hyakunin-isshu), tr. by William N. Porter, [1909], at sacred-texts.com


p. 64

64

THE ASSISTANT IMPERIAL ADVISER SADA-YORI

GON CHŪ-NAGON SADA-YORI

  Asaborake
Uji no kawagiri
  Tae-dae ni
Araware wataru
Seze no ajiro-gi.

SO thickly lies the morning mist,
  That I can scarcely see
The fish-nets on the river bank,
  The River of Uji,
  Past daybreak though it be.

The writer was the son of the author of verse No. 55; he died in the year 1004. The River Uji is in the Province of Omi, and drains into Lake Biwa. Seze is a village on the lake-side, and a suburb of the larger town of Otsu. The poet, looking across the river, can hardly make out the fish-nets on the shore at Seze, because of the rising morning mist.


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