Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 18
Suminoe nokishi ni yoru namiyoru sae yayume no kayoijihito me yokuramu
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Are you so afraid of people's eyesthat not even at night, over dream paths, you come to me like the waves that approach the shore of Suminoe"
Fujiwara no Toshiyuki (d. 901)
[Japan's oldest lighthouse in Sumiyoshi Park, Osaka (Photo Ad Blankestijn)]
The complaint of a woman about her lover who doesn't come by.

"Different from the approach of the waves to the shore of Suminoe, which come both day and night, that I can?t even meet you at night along the paths of my dreams, must be because even in dreams you avoid people?s eyes."

It was believed in Heian Japan that lovers could meet in their dreams. In this case, even that is not possible, something which is rhetorically ascribed to the extreme fear of the lover that other people might see him.
This is a poem written in the voice of a woman (although composed by a man), and not a complaint by a man. This is evident because in aristocratic Heian society it was impossible for a woman to go out and visit her lover. Women always stayed in their mansions, sitting in half-dark halls, hidden from the gaze of others behind heavy screens and curtains. The only occasion they could go out would be a pilgrimage to a famous Kannon temple or to see the Kamo festival, but then also they would ride in carriages behind curtains or be veiled themselves. So it were the men who visited the women,...