The woman Seifu wrote:
Doll faces;
Unavoidably,
I have grown old.
The interest here is in harmony of opposites. The faces of the dolls look still the same age, but the writer, by contrast, finds herself inevitably grown old — a matter beyond her control.
Blyth has translated the last two lines a bit more personally as
Though I never intended to,
I have grown old.
It is true. One does not intend it, but it happens. That demonstrates, as Carl Jung said, that we are not the master in our own house. These humans who think they are Lords of the Earth are the servants of Time.
David
HOKKU 