1. Looking for the Ox: A herdboy dressed as a boy of Tang-dynasty China has been separated from his ox. He is confused by the several mountain paths, and as doubt assails him he gingerly tries one of the roads.

Verse: One aimlessly pushes the grasses aside in search. The rivers are wide, the mountains far away, and the path becomes longer. Exhausted and dispirited, one hears only the late autumn cicadas shrilling in the maple woods. —Trans. Gen Sakamoto