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The theme of all the songs was love, as indeed it is of the vast majority of the Japanese chansons des rues et des bois; even songs about celebrated places usually containing some amatory suggestion. I noticed that almost every simple phase of the emotion, from its earliest budding to its uttermost ripening, was represented in the collection; and I therefore tried to arrange the pieces according to the natural passional sequence. The result had some dramatic suggestiveness.
[1] Literally, "God-Age-since not-changed-things as-for: water of flowing and love-of way."
[2] See Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, ii. 357.
The songs really form three distinct groups, each corresponding to a particular period of that emotional experience which is the subject of all. In the first group of seven the surprise and pain and weakness of passion find utterance; beginning with a plaintive cry of reproach and closing with a whisper of trust.
I
You, by all others disliked!—oh, why must my heart thus like
you?
II
This pain which I cannot speak of to any one in the world:
Tell me who has made it,—whose do you think the fault?
III
Will it be night forever?—I lose my way in this darkness:
Who goes by the path of Love must always go astray!
IV
Even the brightest lamp, even the light electric,
Cannot lighten at all the dusk of the Way of Love.
V
Always the more I love, the more it is hard to say so:
Oh! how happy I were should the loved one say it first!
VI
Such a little word!—only to say, "I love you"!
Why, oh, why do I find it hard to say like this?[1]
[1] Inimitably simple in the original:—
Horeta wai na to
Sukoshi no koto ga:
Naz ni kono y ni
Iinikui?
VII
Clicked-to[2] the locks of our hearts; let the keys remain in our bosoms.
[2] In the original this is expressed by an onomatope, pinto, imitating the sound of the fastening of the lock of a tansu, or chest of drawers:—
Pinto kokoro ni
Jmai oroshi:
Kagi wa tagai no
Mun ni aru.
After which mutual confidence the illusion naturally deepens; suffering yields to a joy that cannot disguise itself, and the keys of the heart are thrown away: this is the second stage.
I
The person who said before, "I hate my life since I saw you,"
Now after union prays to live for a thousand years.
II
You and I together—lilies that grow in a valley:
This is our blossoming-time—but nobody knows the fact.
III
Receiving from his hand the cup of the wine of greeting,
Even before I drink, I feel that my face grows red.
IV
I cannot hide in my heart the happy knowledge that fills it;
Asking each not to tell, I spread the news all round.[3]
[3] Much simpler in the original:—
Mun ni tsutsumenu
Urshii koto wa;—
Kuchidom shinagara
Furaruku.
V
All crows alike are black, everywhere under heaven.
The person that others like, why should not I like too?
VI
Going to see the beloved, a thousand ri are as one ri;[4]
Returning without having seen, one ri is a thousand ri.
[4] One ri is equal to about two and a half English miles.
VII
Going to see the beloved, even the water of rice-fields[5]
Ever becomes, as I drink, nectar of gods[6] to the taste.
[5] In the original dorota; literally "mud rice-fields,"— meaning rice-fields during the time of flushing, before the grain has fairly grown up. The whole verse reads:—
Horet kayoyeba
Dorota no midzu mo
Nomba kanro no
Aji ga suru.
[6] Kanro, a Buddhist word, properly written with two Chinese characters signifying "sweet dew." The real meaning is amrita, the drink of the gods.
VIII
You, till a hundred years; I, until nine and ninety;
Together we still shall be in the time when the hair turns white.
IX
Seeing the face, at once the folly I wanted to utter
All melts out of my thought, and somehow the tears come first![7]
Iitai guchi say
Kao miriya kiyt
Tokakii namida ga
Saki ni deru.
The use of tokaku ("somehow," for "some reason or other") gives a peculiar pathos to the utterance.
X
Crying for joy made wet my sleeve that dries too quickly;
'T is not the same with the heart,—that cannot dry so soon!
XI
To Heaven with all my soul I prayed to prevent your going;
Already, to keep you with me, answers the blessed rain.
So passes the period of illusion. The rest is doubt and pain; only the love remains to challenge even death:—
I
Parted from you, my beloved, I go alone to the pine-field;
There is dew of night on the leaves; there is also dew of tears.
II
Even to see the birds flying freely above me
Only deepens my sorrow,—makes me thoughtful the more.
III
Coming? or coming not? Far down the river gazing,
—Only yomogi shadows[8] astir in the bed of the stream.
