24

On such nights his father's palace would have been filled with music. The setting was the same, but there was very little left by which to remember the old reign.

Omyo~bu brought a poem from Fujitsubo:

“Ninefold mists have risen and come between us.

I am left to imagine the moon beyond the clouds.”

She was so near that he could feel her presence. His bitterness quite left him and he was in tears as he replied:

“The autumn moon is the autumn moon of old.

How cruel the mists that will not let me see it. The poet has told us that mists are as unkind as people, and so I suppose that I am not the first one so troubled.” +

She had numerous instructions for her son with which to delay her farewell. He was boo young to pay a great deal of attention, however, and she drew little comfort from this last interview. Though he usually went to bed very early, tonight he seemed determined to stay up for her departure. He longed to go with her, but of course it was impossible.