Are all men sad, or only I?
And what have I obtained,-

What good the gift of mortal life,
That prize so rarely gained,*

If naught my chilly back protects
But one thin grass-cloth coat,
In tatters hanging like the weeds
That on the billows float,

If here in smoke-stained, darksome hut,
Upon the bare cold ground,
I make my wretched bed of straw,
And hear the mournful sound,-

Hear how mine aged parents groan,
And wife and children cry,
Father and mother, children, wife,
Huddling in misery,--

If in the rice-pan, nigh forgot,

The spider hangs its nest,†

And from the hearth no smoke goes up

Where all is so unblest?

And now, to make our wail more deep,

That saying is proved true

Of" snipping what was short before: "-
Here comes to claim his due

• Because, according to the Buddhist doctrine of perpetually recurring births, it is at any given time more probable that the individual will some into the world in the shape of one of the lower animals,

A literal trauslation of the Japanese idiom,

The village provost, stick in hand,
He's shouting at the door;-
And can such pain and grief be all
Existence has in store?

Stanza.

Shame and despair are mine from day to day;
But, being no bird, I cannot fly away.

(ANON.)

A Frontier Soldier's Regrets on Leaving Home.'

When I left to keep guard on the frontier
(For such was the monarch's decree),

My mother, with skirt uplifted,t

Drew near and fondled me;

And my father, the hot tears streaming
His snow-white beard adown,

The "Frontiers" in the early part of the eighth century of our era were, north, at a line drawn roughly across the main island of Japan at latitude 38°, and separating the Japanese proper from the aboriginal Ainos, and, south, the island of Kinshiu. Neither Yezo nor Loochoo had as yet been added to the empire. Troops sent to the Coren (see p. 79) were likewise said to be doing "frontier service." The mention of em. barking at Naniha (near the site of the modern treaty-port of Ohosaka) shows that it was on duty in the south or west that the author of this piece was sent.

The Japanese commentators do not help us much towards a compre hension of this curious passage (lit. took up in her fingers the lower part of her skirt, and stroked "). One of them supposes that she lifted up her skirt in order to be better able to walk towards her son and caress him.

Besought me to tarry, crying:

"Alas! when thou art gone,

"When thou leav'st our gate in the morning,

No other sons have I,

And mine eyes will long to behold thee
As the weary years roll by;

"So tarry but one day longer,

And let me find some relief

In speaking and hearing thee speak to me!” So wail'd the old man in his grief.

And on either side came pressing
My wife and my children dear,
Flutt'ring like birds, and with garments
Besprinkled with many a tear;

And clasp'd my hands, and would stay me,
For 'twas so hard to part;
But mine awe of the sovereign edict
Constrained my loving heart.

I went; yet each time the pathway

O'er a pass through the mountains did wind, I'd turn me round-ah! so lovingly — And ten thousand times gaze behind.

But farther still, and still farther,

Past many a land I did roam,

And my thoughts were all thoughts of sadness, All loving, sad thoughts of home;

Till I came to the shores of Sumi,
Where the sovereign gods* I prayed, ·
With offrings so humbly offered,-

And this the prayer that I made :—

"Being mortal, I know not how many
The days of my life may be;
And now the perilous pathway

That leads o'er the plain of the sea,

"Past unknown islands will bear me:
But grant that while I am gone
No hurt may touch father or mother,
Or the wife now left all alone!"

Yes, such was my prayer to the sea-gods;
And now the unnumber'd oars,t
And the ship and the seamen to bear me
From breezy Nanfha's shores

Are there at the mouth of the river:-
Oh! tell the dear ones at home,
That I'm off as the day is breaking
To row o'er the ocean foam.‡

:

(ANON.)

Their names are Sokodzutsuwo, Nakadzutsuwo, and Uhadzutsuwo, and together they rule the sea. To them is often associated the semifabulous Empress Zhiñgou, who is said to have conquered the Corea in the third century of our era.

+ In the earliest Japanese literature there is but little mention made of sailing, and even so late as the tenth century the oar would seem to have remained the chief means of propulsion at sea.

To whom this request is made does not appear.

Love Songs

FROM THE

"MANYEFUSHIFU;"

OR,

"COLLECTION OF A MYRIAD LEAVES"