Poem made on “not passing twelve hours in vain”:
Forty some years
Passed by were ways
Of the rabbit-raven
In the great sky.
Jūniji-chū munashiku sugosazu-wo eizu
Suginikeru
Yosoji amari-wa
Oozora-no
Uto-no
Michi-ni-zo airikeru
詠十二時中不過空
過ぎにける
四十余りは
大空の
兎烏の
道にぞありける
Note: To (rabbit) was thought to be in the moon (月: pictograph of the moon)
and u (raven) was thought to be in the sun (日: pictograph of the sun, originally
a circle with a dot: sun spot?: raven?), thus to-u (month-day :月日) or u-to (day-
month :日月) means time passage (travelling of the sun and the moon).
U-to-sō-sō (烏兔怱怱) means “time flies.” Here, however, it would mean “traceless
travel” like swans (hamsa, Sanskrit) leaving no trace of their footprints, path (michi:
道:路: ji in yosoji, forties), in the sky (空) or space – in emptiness (空: śūnyatā: Skt.).
Twelve hours in those days is twenty four hours, whole day, today.
