Anthology of Japanese Literature Read Online Free PDF Page A

be
No more love left anywhere.
Whence then is come this love,
That has caught me now
And holds me in its grasp?
    Princess Hirokawa (Eighth Century)
    An old threnody
The mallards call with evening from the reeds
And float with dawn midway on the water;
They sleep with their mates, it is said,
With white wings overlapping and tails asweep
Lest the frost should fall upon them.
As the stream that flows never returns,
And as the wind that blows is never seen,
My wife, of this world, has left me,
Gone I know not whither!
So here, on the sleeves of these clothes
She used to have me wear,
I sleep now all alone!
ENVOY
    Cranes call flying to the reedy shore;
How desolate I remain
As I sleep alone!
    Tajihi (Eighth Century)
    . .
Oh how steadily I love you—
You who awe me
Like the thunderous waves
That lash the seacoast of Ise!
    Lady Kasa (Eighth Century)
    . .
More sad thoughts crowd into my mind
When evening comes; for then,
Appears your phantom shape—
Speaking as I have known you speak.
    Lady Kasa
    . .
If it were death to love,
I should have died—
And died again
One thousand times over.
    Lady Kasa
    Love's complaint
At wave-bright Naniwa
The sedges grow, firm-rooted—
Firm were the words you spoke,
And tender, pledging me your love,
That it would endure through all the years;
And to you I yielded my heart,
Spotless as a polished mirror.
Never, from that day, like the seaweed
That sways to and fro with the waves,
Have I faltered in my fidelity,
But have trusted in you as in a great ship.
Is it the gods who have divided us?
Is it mortal men who intervene?
You come no more, who came so often,
Nor yet arrives a messenger with your letter.
There is—alas!—nothing I can do.
Though I sorrow the black night through
And all day till the red sun sinks,
It avails me nothing. Though I pine,
I know not how to soothe my heart's pain.
Truly men call us "weak women."
Crying like an infant,
And lingering around, I must still wait,
Wait impatiendy for a message from you!
ENVOY
    If from the beginning
You had not made me trust you,
Speaking of long, long years,
Should I have known now
Such sorrow as this?
    Lady Ō tomo of Sakanoue (Eighth Century)
    . .
Do you desire our love to endure?
Then, if only while I see you
After days of longing and yearning,
Pray, speak to me
Sweet words—all you can!
    Lady Ō tomo
    . .
Oh, the pain of my love that you know not—
A love like the maiden-lily
Blooming in the thicket of the summer moor!
    Lady Ō tomo
    Addressed to a young woman
Over the river ferry of Saho,
Where the sanderlings cry—
When can I come to you,
Crossing on horseback
The crystal-clear shallows?
    Having seen your smile
In a dream by chance,
I keep now burning in my hear
Love's inextinguishable flame.
    How I waste and waste away
With love forlorn—
I who have thought myself
A strong man!
    ÅŒ tomo Yakamochi (718-785)
    . .
Rather than that I should thus pine for you,
Would I had been transmuted
Into a tree or a stone,
Nevermore to feel the pangs of love.
    ÅŒ tomo Yakamochi
    . .
In obedience to the Imperial command,
Though sad is the parting from my wife,
I summon up the courage of a man,
And dressed for journey, take my leave.
My mother strokes me gently;
My young wife clings to me, saying,
"I will pray to the gods for your safekeeping.
Go unharmed and come back soon!"
As she speaks, she wipes with her sleeves
The tears that choke her.
Hard as it is, I start on my way,
Pausing and looking back time after time;
Ever farther I travel from my home,
Ever higher the mountains I climb and cross,
Till at last I arrive at Naniwa of wind-blown reeds.
Here I stop and wait for good weather,
To launch the ship upon the evening tide,
To set the prow seawards,
And to row out in the calm of morning.
The spring mists rise round the isles,
And the cranes cry in a plaintive tone,
Then I think of my far-off home—
Sorely do I