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"Love's equal real knows no divisions."] A twelfth-century folk-song (Ryōjin Hisshō, p. 126), speaks of "The Way of Love which knows no castes of 'high' and 'low.'"

as the horse of the aged man of the land of Sai] A story from Huai-nan Tzu˘. What looks like disaster turns out to be good fortune and vice versa. The horse broke away and was lost. A revolution occurred during which the Government seized all horses. When the revolution was over the man of Sai's horse was rediscovered. If he had not lost it the Government would have taken it.

as a while colt flashes / Past a gap in the hedge] This simile, which passed into a proverb in China and Japan, occurs first in Chuang Tzu˘, chap. xxii.

possessed by the Gardener's angry ghost, which speaks through her] Compare the "possession" in Sotoba Komachi.

"Though the waters. . . feeds my heart."] Adapted from a poem in the Gosenshū.

. . . boughs of an autumn tree] Adapted from a poem in the Kokinshū.

"The Lesser and the Greater"] The names of two of the Cold Hells in the Buddhist Inferno.

"The fish. . . is turned"] There is a legend that the fish who succeed in leaping a certain waterfall turn into dragons. So the Gardener's attempt to raise himself to the level of the Princess has changed him into an evil demon.