All trippingly a tender girl is going, In bodice blue and crimson skirt arrayed. None to escort her: would that I were knowing Whether alone she sleeps on virgin bed, Or if some spouse has won her by his wooing:Tell me her house! I'll ask the pretty maid! (ANON.) Evening. From the loud wave-wash'd shore Wend I my way, On past Kusáka's crest, Sweet as the loveliest Flower of the lea! (ANON.) A note to the original says: “The name of the composer of the above song is not given because he was of obscure rank,” a reason which will sound strange to European ears. See, however, the Introduction, p. 17.] A Maiden's Lament. Full oft he sware, with accents true and tender, "Though years roll by, my love shall ne'er wax old!" And so to him my heart I did surrender, Clear as a mirror of pure burnish'd gold; And from that day, unlike the seaweed bending To ev'ry wave raised by the autumn gust, Firm stood my heart, on him alone depending, As the bold seaman in his ship doth trust. Is it some cruel god that hath bereft me? Or hath some mortal stol'n away his heart? No word, no letter since the day he left me, Nor more he cometh, ne'er again to part! In vain I weep, in helpless, hopeless sorrow, From earliest morn until the close of day; No need to tell how young I am and slender,— (THE LADY SAKANOUHE.) Song COMPOSED ON ASCENDING MOUNT MIKASA.” Oft in the misty spring The vapours roll o'er Mount Mikasa's crest, While, pausing not to rest, The birds each morn with plaintive note do sing. In the province of Yamato, close to Nara, the ancient capital. Like to the mists of spring My heart is rent; for, like the song of birds, The tender accents of my passionate words. Till daylight fades away; I call her ev'ry night Till dawn restores the light; But my fond pray'rs are all too weak to bring (AKAHITO.) Song ASKING FOR PEARLS TO SEND HOME TO NARA. They tell me that the fisher-girls Who steer their course o'er Susu's* brine, Dive 'neath the waves and bring up pearls: Oh! that five hundred pearls were mine! Forlorn upon our marriage-bed, My wife, my darling sweet and true, Must lay her solitary head Since the sad hour I bade adieu. No more, methinks, when shines the dawn, • A place in the province of Noto, the little peninsula that juts out into the Japan Sea on the north-west coast. E She counts the months since I am gone, If but a string of pearls were mine, (YAKAMOCHL.) The Flowers of my Garden. Sent by the sov'reign lord to sway And now five years are past and gone, But as a solace for my heart, • Literally, the tachiḥana (citrus mandarinus), one of the orange tribe. + The most northern province of the empire, on the Aino border. |