The blossom's tint is washed away
By heavy showers of rain ;
My charms, which once I prized so much,
Are also on the wane,-
Both bloomed, alas! in vain.
Leisurely I face my inkstone all day long, and without
any particular object jot down the odds and ends that pass through
my mind, with a curious feeling that I am not sane.
At the court of an emperor (he lived it matters not when)
there was among the many gentlewomen of the Wardrobe and chamber one,
who though she was not of very high rank was favoured far beyond
all the rest.