Since I now recall fondly
the painful days of the past,
if I live long, I may look back
on these harsh days, too,
and find them sweet and good.
–Fujiwara no Kiyosuke
♦
From One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse, translated with an introduction and commentary by Peter MacMillan © 2018. Reprinted with permission of Penguin Random House (penguinrandomhouse.com).