逢ふことの

絶えてしなくは

中々に

人をも身をも

恨みざらまし

ちゅうなごんあさただ

あうことの

たえてしなくは

なかなかに

ひとをもみをも

うらみざらまし

Fujiwara no Asatada

If it so happens

That we never meet again,

I sincerely

Wish for all of us that there

Would be no ill feelings left. 

Hokusai

Fujiwara no Asatada (910 - 966), also called Chunagon Asatada, or Tomotada in the Edo-period) was a middle Heian waka poet (included in many anthologies) and nobleman. He is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. He was a son of Fujiwara no Sadakata (poem 25).

作者略伝と語釈

The classification of this poem changed with time. First it was seen as ‘love before a first meeting’; later it was published under the topic ‘love not being returned’. The reason why the love can’t go on is not clear; this uncertainty may have allowed Hokusai to refer to the story of the Fox Lady.

The nobleman, Abe no Yasuna, when walking in the garden of the Inari temple in Kyoto, rescued a fox that was being hunted. Shortly thereafter he met and married a beautiful girl named Kuzunoha. She bore him a son, but, after three years, she left him. Three days after she left, she appeared to him in a dream, telling him not to mourn, for she was not human, but the fox he had rescued.

There are other variations of the story. In some Kuzunoha died after giving birth to Seimei.

From Hokusai - One Hundred Poets: “The picture shows the Fox Lady appearing to Yasuna and Seimei in a temple park reminiscent of their original meeting place. (Inari is god of the harvests, and the time is autumn, as indicated by the rice sheaves in the foreground.) It is said that the foxes gather and breathe fire on the last day of the year, as we see in the background.”

The pine tree seems to be damaged and taking root in an other place.

In this interpretation there would simply be an impossibility to meet again, not a rejection of love.