Lady Kasa (笠郎女, Kasa no Iratsume) was a Japanese female waka poet of the early 8th century.
Little is known of her except what is preserved in her 29 surviving poems in the Man'yōshū; all these were love poems addressed to her lover Ōtomo no Yakamochi who compiled the Man'yōshū (and who is known to have had at least 14 other lovers and have broken up with her). Nonetheless, her love poems made her famous and inspired a later generation of female poets like Izumi Shikibu or Ono no Komachi.
The poem:
わが形見見つつ偲はせあらたまの年の緒長くわれも思はむ
Romaji transliteration (reconstructed Old Japanese):
wa ga katami
mitutu sinopase
aratama no
tosi no wo nagaku
ware mo omopamu
English translation:
On a keepsake of me
Gaze and think of me;
Fresh-jewelled as
The years’ long thread
Will my thoughts follow you.
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