Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/63

"To what shall I compare
This life of ours?
It is like a boat
Which at daybreak rows away
And leaves no trace behind it."^[1]

"I would go to some land
Where no cuckoos are,
I am so melancholy
When I hear
Their note."

"The rippling^[2] wistaria
That I planted by my house
As a memento
Of thee whom I love,
Is at length in blossom."

"When the cuckoo sang,
Straightway I drove him off,
Bidding him go to you.
I wonder did he reach you?"

"Go, thou cuckoo,
And tell my lord,
Who is too busy
To come to see me,
How much I love him."

"Granted that I
Am hateful to you,
But the flowering orange,
That grows by my dwelling,
Will you really not come to see it?"

"I wear no clothing
Drenched with dew
From wending my way through the summer herbage;
But yet the sleeve of my garment
Is never for a moment dry [from tears]."

 

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1. The sentiment of this poem is Buddhist. The transitoriness of life is a constant refrain all through Japanese literature.
2. The flowers are supposed to resemble waves.