Classic Poem

Since last I saw you
my height
has surpassed
that of the well-curb
where we measured it. The girl replied:

This parted hair
I once compared with yours
now falls past my shoulders.
Who should tie it up
if not you? After many such exchanges, they were finally able to marry as they wished.
Several years passed, and the woman's parents died. Without their support, the man thought there was no use in going on together as they had been and began visiting a woman in Takayasu, in Kochi Province. Despite this, the first woman saw him off without any sign of distrust, so the man began to suspect that she was seeing someone else. When he did himself in the shrubbery, pretending to have left for Kochi, the woman carefully put on her makeup and, gazing off sadly, recited

When the wind blows
the white waves break in the offing,
will you be crossing
Mount Tatsuta
alone at night? When he heard this, his tenderness for her knew no bounds, and he stopped going to Kochi.
When he went on rare occasions to look in on the woman in Takayasu, he found that though she had initially made herself out to be refined, she had become careless. When he saw her take up a ladle herself and pile rice into a serving bowl, he was disgusted and stopped going to see her. The woman gazed off into the distance toward Yamato and said:

I shall keep watch
over you.
Do not hide Mount Ikoma,
O clouds,
even if it rains. Finally the man from Yamato said he would come. She waited happily, but after being disappointed several times, she said:

As each night
you said you would come
passes by,
I learn not to trust you
though my love persists. But the man stopped visiting her.