BALLADS. The Fisher Boy Urashima.* 'TIS spring, and the mists come stealing And I stand by the seaside musing I muse on the old-world story, Who a-fishing lov'd to go; How he came not back to the village How they pledged their faith to each other, And enter'd the sea-god's palace So lovingly hand in hand, * For a literal prose version of this ballad see the second Appendix to Aston's "Grammar of the Japanese Written Language." с To dwell for aye in that country, But the foolish boy said, "To-morrow A word to my mother to tell." The maiden answered, "A casket To come back to the Evergreen Land, "Then open it not, I charge thee! Open it not, I beseech!" So the boy row'd home o'er the billows But where is his native hamlet? Where is his mother's cottage? Strange cots rise on either hand. What, in three short years since I left it," He cries in his wonder sore, "Has the home of my childhood vanished? Is the bamboo fence no more? "Perchance if I open the casket Which the maiden gave to me, Will come back as they used to be." And he lifts the lid, and there rises That floats off to the Evergreen Country:- He waves the sleeve of his tunic, But a sudden chill comes o'er him And furrows with hoary wrinkles His breath grows fainter and fainter, (ANON.) * Such frantic demonstrations of grief are very frequently mentioned in the early poetry, and sound strangely in the ears of those who are accustomed to the more than English reserve of the modern Japanese. Possibly, as in Europe, so in Japan, there may have been a real change of character in this respect. |