Lady Ise
Is it your command
That we must pass through this life
Not meeting, even
For a space short as the
nodes
Of the
reeds of
Naniwa?
Naniwa gata
Mijikaki ashi no
Fushi no ma mo
Awade kono yo wo
Sugushite yo to ya
- translated by Kenneth Rexroth
from One Hundred Poems from the Japanese