RESPECTFULLY PRESENTED TO PRINCE TACHIBANA-NO-HIRONARI

ON THE OCCASION OF HIS DEPARTURE AS AMBASSADOR TO
THE COURT OF CHINA, WISHING HIM A PROSPEROUS VOYAGE
AND A HAPPY RETURN. (A.D. 733.)

In the great days of old,

When o'er the land the gods held sov'reign sway,
Our fathers lov'd to say

That the bright gods with tender care enfold
The fortunes of Japan,

Blessing the land with many an holy spell:
And what they lov'd to tell

We of this later age ourselves do prove;
For every living man

May feast his eyes on tokens of their love.

Countless are the hosts attendant

On the heav'n-establish'd throne
Of the Mikado, bright descendant
Of the goddess of the Sun:
But on thee his special grace

Lights to-day, for thou canst trace

From king to king thy noble birth
To the lords of all the earth;
And to thee the word is given

Sacred missives to convey

From the resplendent Son of Heaven
To the far distant limits of Cathay.

May the great immortals dwelling
On the isles that line thy road,
And the gods who in the swelling
Billows make their dread abode,
Gather round and safely guide thee,

While, that nought but good betide thee,

That Great Spirit* in whose hand
Lie the fortunes of our land,
And all the gods of heaven and earth,
Flutt'ring down on airy pinions,
From the country of thy birth

Waft thee to Cathay's unknown dominions!

And when, thine embassage concluded,
Hither again thou think'st to come,
May the same great gods that brooded
O'er thy going, bring thee home;

What divinity should be understood by this term is a matter of debate among the native commentators. Probably it refers to Ohoanamuchi, the aboriginal monarch of the province of Idzumo, who, according to the national traditions, peacefully relinquished the sovereignty of the country to the Mikado's ancestors, the heaven-descended gods, on the condition of receiving from them divine honours. One of the most interesting questions connected with the semi-fabulous early Japanese history is that, as to whether this tradition may be interpreted so as to warrant the belief of the existence in Japan of a pre-Japanese civilisation.

G

May their fingers help thy vessel

Surely with the waves to wrestle,

As if across the azure line

*

Thy path were ruled with ink and line,That, round bold Chika's headland turning, Soon thou land on Mitsu's shore.

Oh! tarry not! for thee we're yearning; On thee may Heav'n its richest blessings pour

(YAMAGAMI-NO OKURA.)

!

Another Ode

PRESENTED TO THE PRINCE ON THE SAME OCCASION.

Till the thread of life is broken

Shall thine image fill my heart;
But the sov'reign lord* has spoken,
And, poor mortals, we must part!

Where the crane, with accents wailing,
On Naniha's billowy strand
Calls his mate when day is failing,
There thou leav'st thy native land.

With the foam-capped waves to wrestle,
In his place each oarsman sits ;

* A cape in the province of Hizeñ, not far from the site of the modern town of Nagasaki. This is a long way from Mitsu-no-Hama, near Nara, the vessel's final destination; but the worst portion of the journey from China would be overpast, as the rest of the way lies through the Inland Sea.

Not God or fate, but the Mikado.

Rounding Mitsu's cape, thy vessel
On past countless islands flits.

*

While, the sacred emblems taking
To implore the heav'nly train,
I await thee heed mine aching
Heart, and soon come home again!

(KASA-NO-KANAMURA ASON.)

Lines

COMPOSED ON THE OCCASION OF PRINCE WOSA'S HUNTING PARTY ON THE MOOR OF KARIJI.+

[Prince Wosa was son of the Emperor Teñmu, and died A.D. 715.]

When our prince, the mighty monarch,
When our prince, of high-set splendour,
To the hunt, with many a horseman,
Marches o'er Kariji's moorland,
Kneeling low, the deer adore him,
Kneeling low, the quails surround him.

We, too, kneel like deer before him,
We, too, kneel like quails around him,
Giving true and trembling service;

* See the note to p. 77.

+ Kariji is by some taken as a common noun in the sense of "hunting field;" but it is better to regard it as the name of a place, probably situated in the neighbourhood of the modern village of Shishiji in the province of Yamato.

And our eyes and hearts, uplifted,
Seem to rest on heav'n's own radiance,
Ever piercing new perfections

In our prince, the mighty monarch!

(HITOMARO.)

Ode to Fusiyama.*

There on the border, where the land of Kahit
Doth touch the frontier of Suruga's land,
A beauteous province stretch'd on either hand,
See Fusiyama rear his head on high!

The clouds of heav'n in rev'rent wonder pause,
Nor may the birds those giddy heights assay,
Where melt thy snows amid thy fires away,
Or thy fierce fires lie quench'd beneath thy snows.

What name might fitly tell, what accents sing,
Thine awful, godlike grandeur? 'Tis thy breast
That holdeth Narusáha's flood at rest,

Thy side whence Fuzhikáha's waters spring.

*Fusiyama has been considered as a naturalised English word, like Vienna, Brussels, &c., and the native spelling of Fuzhiyama (more correctly Fuzhinone or Fuzhisañ) has therefore not been adopted in the text. Fuzhikaha is the name of a river, and Narusaha that of a lake now dried up. The lovely waterfalls of Shiraito-no-Taki, which form by far the most charming feature of the landscape surrounding the great volcano (not yet extinct in the poet's time), have been strangely passed over in silence by him as by the other poets his contemporaries. It is a common Japanese saying that no good verses have been written on Fusiyama.

Pronounced as one syllable, as if written Kye. Kahi and Suruga are the names of provinces.