Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/64

"'Tis the sixth month,
The sun is shining,
So that the very ground is cracked;
But even so, how shall my sleeve become dry
If I never meet thee?"

"On the spring moor
To gather violets
I went forth;
Its charm so held me
That I stayed^[1] till morn."
—Akahito.

"Oh! the misery of loving,
Hidden from the world
Like a maiden-lily
Growing amid the thick herbage
Of the summer plain!"

"The sky is a sea
Where the cloud-billows rise;
And the moon is a bark;
To the groves of the stars
It is oaring its way."

"Oh! that the white waves far out
On the sea of Ise
Were but flowers,
That I might gather them
And bring them as a gift to my love!"
—Prince Aki, a.d. 740.

Although the Nihongi,^[2] being in the Chinese language, does not fall within the proper scope of this work, it occupies so conspicuous a position among books written in Japan, that it deserves a passing notice. In it we have a collection of the national myths, legends, poetry, and history from the earliest times down to A.D. 697, prepared

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1. No doubt to be understood metaphorically of a visit to his love.
2. Translated by W. G. Aston in the Transactions of the Japan Society, 1896.