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p. 74

74

THE MINISTER TOSHI-YORI MINAMOTO

MINAMOTO NO TOSHI-YORI ASON

  Ukari keru
Hito wo Hatsuse no
  Yama-oroshi
Hageshikare to wa
Inoranu mono wo.

OH! Kwannon, Patron of this hill,
  The maid, for whom I pine,
Is obstinate and wayward, like
  The gusts around thy shrine.
  What of those prayers of mine?

Toshi-yori is supposed to have been the son of the writer of verse No. 71; he probably lived early in the twelfth century. Hatsuse is a mountain village near Nara, in the Province of Yamato; the temple there is dedicated to Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy, 'who looketh for ever down above the sound of prayer.'


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