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Anonymous translation
KONAMI WHO first on thee, O fleeting world, | |
| Thy name bestowed, O Aska stream, I pray | |
| Thee tell me who art onwards whirled | |
| Mid shifting sandbanks, so changeful is the way | |
| Of life to us from happ’ness hurled,— | 5 |
| A wavelet now hath touched thy well-known strand | |
| Whom Yenya welcomed as the bride | |
| Of his esquire who long had sought her hand, | |
| Low-fallen with Yenya’s fall her pride! | |
| She was betrothed, and Kakogawa’s child | 10 |
| Fond hope deep in her being bore, | |
| But adverse Fortune ne’er upon her smiled, | |
| No bridal gifts exchanged, no more | |
| By lover sought, her soul is sad. | |
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TONASE Peace, daughter, peace, thy mother bids thee haste | 15 |
| Towards Yamashina, where glad | |
| By bridegroom thou shalt surely be embraced. | |
| Alas! a bride-train thus forlorn | |
| Hath never yet in all the world been known; | |
| With doubt and grief my heart is torn, | 20 |
| Without attendant, mother and child alone, | |
| On foot must urge their weary way, | |
| And strive Yamato’s far-off land to gain. | |
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KONAMI My body ’s white as snow, men say, | |
| The chilly winds with crimson hue it stain | 25 |
| Such as the wild-plum’s flower make gay, | |
| My fingers all are sore benumbed with cold, | |
| Apt name Kogoye Pass is thine: | |
| O’er Satta’s ridge our further way we hold, | |
| Thence gazing back the curling line | 30 |
| All pensive watch of vaguely erring smoke | |
| That issueth from Fuji’s peak | |
| And vanishing in the lofty sky is broke; | |
| How sweet if ’t were the bonfire’s reek | |
| At threshold lit my welcome home a bride, | 35 |
| How ’t would our sadness charm away! | |
| With pines o’ergrown Matsbara’s plain so wide | |
| Now traversed crowded in the way, | |
| The sea-coast way, by some great Daimio’s train, | |
| I know not whose, how blithe and gay | 40 |
| They seem, ah! when shall we know joy again. | |
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TONASE O would that Fortune smiling were | |
| Upon us, proud thy bridal train should be: | |
| Than thee, none happier, none more fair; | |
| Now yonder may we Sur’ga’s Fuchiu see, | 45 |
| The omen cheers thy mother’s heart, | |
| Her child shall yet the marriage pledge exchange, | |
| By husband yet be led apart, | |
| In bridal bower sweet vows to interchange | |
| In tender whispers heard by none. | 50 |
| Narrows the path through the briers hardly seen, | |
| To parent as to child unknown, | |
| Fain wouldst thou now on lover’s strong arm lean. | |
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KONAMI On Mariko’s sunny bank we stand, | |
| His rapid stream shall bear our griefs away, | 55 |
| Dear mother; now on our right hand | |
| High Utsu’s hill we leave behind, O, say | |
| Shall I my lord’s new pillow press, | |
| Half sleeping, by a bridegroom’s arms embraced, | |
| What mighty cares my mind distress! | 60 |
| Ohoi river, thou whose waters haste | |
| In rapid tumult onwards sped, | |
| As fleeting often is the love of man, | |
| Yet ’t is not fickleness I dread | |
| In him I love, but ’neath misfortune’s ban | 65 |
| Our love’s full flower can hardly blow. | |
| Our feet upon Shiradska’s bridge now stand: | |
| Past Yoshida we further go | |
| To Akasaka; our wearied limbs demand | |
| Repose; the beckoning women cry, | 70 |
| That throng the door of every inn, “Fair bride, | |
To Ky mid’s far-famed temple nigh, | |
| To Otowa’s roaring falls choose you a guide; | |
| Say, lady, will you not delay, | |
| Adore the temple’s deity and view | 75 |
| How to the god the Pilgrims pay | |
| With sacred dance and music homage due, | |
| And join in the applauding shout, | |
| And share the merry throng’s loud happiness.” | |
| “Ah, no; I cannot linger; doubt | 80 |
| And fear us restless towards the city press.” | |
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TONASE Right, daughter; were thy lover here, | |
| Three suppliants we would Ise’s god revere. | |
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KONAMI Thus we our clownish verses sing; | |
| To Nar’migáta’s town we come. Success | 85 |
| The happy name I trust may bring. | |
| Ha! Atsta’s shrine descry we yonder,—yes, | |
| Full seven leagues across the bay. | |
| Haul taut the sail, bend, mother, bend to the oar, | |
| With measured stroke,—away, away,— | 90 |
| Haste, mother, haste, far yet the further shore. | |
| Hark! as we steer how loud the cry. | |
| Is it the scream of some tiny súdsu fly, | |
| Or is it rather the chirruping shriek | |
| Of the grasshopper that, as the old song tells, doth cry | 95 |
| Through the chilly nights when the hoar-frosts lie. | |
| The even latens fast, and darksome night | |
| Us threatens ere we have attained | |
| Yon nearing shore, while yet the day is light. | |
| O mother, every nerve be strained. | 100 |
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BOTH How fierce the hail drives through the windy air; | |
| We cover from the storm our heads, | |
| Now side by side our barques through the waters tear | |
| Now one the laggard other leads; | |
| Sh-kame’s Hill we pass, awhile | 105 |
| At Seki rest, wherefrom the Eastern way | |
| Parts stretching south for many a mile, | |
| The road that leads through Isé,—the merry play | |
| Of packhorse bells we hear as thee | |
| We reach, Sudsuka, Ainotruchi’s peak, | 110 |
| Rain-dimmed, now hardly may we see. | |
| Rain ever dims, men say, its summit bleak. | |
| O Minaguchi,—the rocky vale | |
| Of Ishite we next fatigued toil through, | |
| Pass Ohods’, Nii’s temple hail, | 115 |
| The hillside skirt, our further way pursue, | |
| And now a petty hamlet nigh | |
| Yamashina,—our journey’s end,—descry. | |
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