Rikomby[=o]
Hito ni kakushité
Oku-zashiki,
Omoté y dëasanu
Kagé no wazurai.

[_Afflicted with the Rikomby[=o], she hides away from people
in the back room, and never approaches the front of the
house,--because of her Shadow-disease._[29]]

[Footnote 29: There is a curious play on words in the fourth line.
The word _omoté_, meaning "the front," might, in reading, be sounded
as _omotté_, "thinking." The verses therefore might also be thus
translated:--"She keeps her real thoughts hidden in the back part
of the house, and never allows them to be seen in the front part of
the house,--because she is suffering from the 'Shadow-Sickness' [of
love]."]

Mi wa koko ni;
Tama wa otoko ni
Soïné suru;--
Kokoro mo shiraga
Haha ga kaih[=o].

[_Here her body lies; but her soul is far away, asleep in the
arms of a man;--and the white-haired mother, little knowing
her daughter's heart, is nursing (only the body)._[30]]

[Footnote 30: There is a double meaning, suggested rather than