Are all men sad, or only I? What good the gift of mortal life, If naught my chilly back protects If here in smoke-stained, darksome hut, Hear how mine aged parents groan, 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: "- • 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, Stanza. Shame and despair are mine from day to day; (ANON.) A Frontier Soldier's Regrets on Leaving Home.' When I left to keep guard on the frontier My mother, with skirt uplifted,t Drew near and fondled me; And my father, the hot tears streaming 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 "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 And clasp'd my hands, and would stay me, 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, And this the prayer that I made :— "Being mortal, I know not how many That leads o'er the plain of the sea, "Past unknown islands will bear me: Yes, such was my prayer to the sea-gods; Are there at the mouth of the river:- : (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. |