Husband and Wife.

Wife. While other women's husbands ride
Along the road in proud array,

My husband up the rough hillside
On foot must wend his weary way.

The grievous sight with bitter pain
My bosom fills, and many a tear
Steals down my cheek, and I would fain
Do ought to help my husband dear.

Come take the mirror and the veil,
My mother's parting gifts to me;
In barter they must sure avail

To buy an horse to carry thee !

Husband. An I should purchase me an horse,
Must not my wife still sadly walk?

No, no! though stony is our course,
We'll trudge along and sweetly talk.

(ANON.)

The Pearls.*

Oh! he my prince, that left my side

O'er the twain Lover Hills + to roam,

*For the reference in this song to the "evening horoscope," see p. 59. + Mount Lover and Mount Lady-love (Se-yama and Imo-yama), in the province of Yamato. Between them ran the rapid Yoshino-gaha, which has ended by sweeping away the Lover's Mount,-at least so the translator was told by the ferryman at the river in the summer of 1876; and

Saying that in far Kíshiu's tide

He'd hunt for pearls to bring them home,

When will he come? With trembling hope
I hie me to the busy street

To ask the evening horoscope,

That straightway thus gives answer meet

"The lover dear, my pretty girl,

For whom thou waitest, comes not yet,
Because he's seeking ev'ry pearl

Where out at sea the billows fret.

"He comes not yet, my pretty girl!
Because among the riplets clear
He's seeking, finding ev'ry pearl;
'Tis that delays thy lover dear.

"Two days at least must come and go,

Sev'n days at most will bring him back;

"Twas he himself that told me so:

Then cease fair maid, to cry Alack!"

(ANON.)

Lines

COMPOSED ON BEHOLDING AN UNACCOMPANIED DAMSEL CROSS-
ING THE GREAT BRIDGE OF KAHAUCHI.

Across the bridge, with scarlet lacquer glowing,
That o'er the Katashiha's stream is laid,

certainly from the boat there was but one mountain to be seen in the direction indicated. Perhaps there was never more than one, save in the brains of the Japanese poets, who are very fond of playing with these romantic names.

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,
Hast'ning o'er many a flow'r,
At close of day,-

On past Kusáka's crest,
Onward to thee,

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; In vain, till radiant dawn brings back the morrow, I sigh the weary, weary nights away.

No need to tell how young I am and slender,-
A little maid that in thy palm could lie:
Still for some message comforting and tender
I pace the room in sad expectancy.

(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,
Still all unanswer'd ring

The tender accents of my passionate words.
I call her ev'ry day

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
My darling back to sight.

(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,
She combs her dark dishevell❜d hair:

* A place in the province of Noto, the little peninsula that juts out into the Japan Sea on the north-west coast.

E