_To you it may be a commonplace to speak of love,_
_But my feeling this morning--_
_To nothing can it be compared!_
She answered:
_Whether commonplace or not--_
_Thoughts do not dwell upon it_
_For the first time [I] am caught in the toils._
O what a person! What has she done! So tenderly the late Prince spoke
to her! She felt regret and her mind was not tranquil. Just then the
page came. Awaited a letter, but there was none. It disappointed her;
how much in love! When the page returned, a letter was given.
The letter:
_Were my heart permitted even to feel the pain of waiting!_
_It may be to wait is lesser pain--_
_To-night--not even to wait for--_
The Prince read it, and felt deep pity, yet there must be reserve [in
going out at night]. His affection for his Princess is unusually light,
but he may be thinking it would seem odd to leave home every night.
Perhaps he will reserve himself until the mourning for the late Prince
is over;[6] it is a sign that his love is not deep. An answer came
after nightfall.
_Had she said she was waiting for me with all her heart,_
_Without rest towards the house of my beloved_
_Should I have been impelled!_
When I think how lightly you may regard me!
Her answer:
Why should I think lightly of you?
_I am a drop of dew_
_Hanging from a leaf_
_Yet I am not unrestful_
_For on this branch I seem to have existed_
_From before the birth of the world._
Please think of me as like the unstable dew which cannot
even remain unless the leaf supports it.
His Highness received this letter. He wanted to come, but days passed
without realizing his wish. On the moon-hidden day [last day of month]
she wrote:
_If to-day passes_
_Your muffled voice of April, O cuckoo_
_When can I hear?_
She sent this poem, but as the Prince had many callers it could only
reach him the next morning.
His answer:
_The cuckoo's song in spring is full of pain._
_Listen and you will hear his song of summer_
_Full-throated from to-day._[7]
And so he came at last, avoiding public attention. The lady was
preparing herself for temple-going, and in the act of religious
purification. Thinking that the rare visits of the Prince betrayed his
indifference, and supposing that he had come only to show that he was
not without sympathy, she continued the night absorbed in religious
services, talking little with him.