#6 by Chunagon Yakamochi (Otomo No Yakamochi)
If the "Magpie Bridge"
Bridge by flight of magpies spanned -
White with frost I see :-
With a deep-laid frost made white :-
Late, I know, has grown the night.
The "magpie bridge" refers to an old myth, originally Chinese but adopted by the Japanese as their own. Once there as a herdsman, Kengyu, who was in love with a beautiful weaver maiden, Shokujo. But while courting her, he failed to pay attention to his cattle, which wandered intot he heavenly fields and ate all the flowers. The gods therefore decreed that the two lovers were to be seperated by the Ama-No-Kawa or , "River of Heaven" - the Milky Way. On one day a year, the seventh day of the seventh month, the magpies were allowed to make a bridge with their wings across the Milky Way so that the weaver (identified with the star Vega) could cross for an anual visit to her husband, the herdsman (the star Altair). The day is called Tanabata and is celebrated as a holiday in Japan. In the times of the old lunar calendar, the came in autumn, now it is in summer.
