Eines

COMPOSED ON THE OCCASION OF MY LORD OHOTOMO, THE INSPECTOR OF TRIBUTE, MAKING THE ASCENT OF MOUNT TSUKUBA.

[Who this Lord Ohotomo was is not certain, there being no sufficient grounds for supposing, with the commentator Keichiyuu, that he was the same as the Prime Minister Ohotomo mentioned on page 105 as father of the poetess Sakanouhe. Mount Tsukuba, in the province of Hitachi, is well seen from Yedo, rising with its two peaks of almost exactly equal height, at a distance of some sixty miles to the north of the city, and gaining from the flatness of the country, between its base and the coast, an appearance of dignity to which its actual elevation of only three thousand feet would scarcely entitle it. The translator, on making the ascent, found a small shrine on either peak, one dedicated to the god, and the other to the goddess, of the locality.]

When my lord, who fain would look on
Great Tsukuba, double-crested,

To the highlands of Hitáchi

Bent his steps, then I, his servant,
Panting with the heats of summer,
Down my brow the sweat-drops dripping,
Breathlessly toil'd onward, upward,
Tangled roots of timber clutching.
"There, my lord! behold the prospect!"

Cried I when we scal'd the summit.

And the gracious goddess gave us

Smiling welcome, while her cousort

Condescended to admit us

Into these his sacred precincts,

O'er Tsukuba double-crested,

Where the clouds do have their dwelling

And the rain for ever raineth,
Shedding his divine refulgence,
And revealing to our vision
Ev'ry landmark that in darkness

And in shapeless gloom was shrouded ;-
Till for joy our belts we loosen'd,
Casting off constraint, and sporting
As at home we oft had sported.
Danker now than in the dulcet
Spring-time grew the summer grasses;
Yet to-day our bliss was boundless.

Couplet.

When the great men of old pass'd by this way, Could e'en their pleasures vie with ours to-day?

(ANON.)

Ode to the Cuckoo,

Nightingales built the nest
Where, as a lonely guest,

First thy young head did rest,
Cuckoo so dear !

Strange to the father bird,

Strange to the mother bird

Sounded the note they heard,
Tender and clear.

COMPOSED ON THE OCCASION OF ASCENDING MOUNT TSUKUBA, AND JOINING IN THE CHORIC DANCE.

Where many an eagle builds her nest
On Tsukuba's mountain-crest,

There the men and maids foregather,

And this the song they sing together:

• Literally "the blossoms of the u shrub (deutzia sieboldiana), which are white.

Literally, the tachibana (citrus mandarinus), one of the orange tribe.

"I your mistress mean to woo!
You may take and love mine too!
For the gods that here do throne
Ne'er this ancient use disown:
So shut your eyes but for to-day,
And find no fault howe'er we play!

(MUSHIMARO.)

RESPECTFULLY PRESENTED TO PRINCE TACHIBANA-NO-HIRONARI ON THE OCCASION OF HIS DEPARTURE AS AMBASSADOR TO THE COURT OF CHINA, WISHING HIM A PROSPEROUS VOYAGE AND A HAPPY RETURN. (A.D. 733.)

When o'er the land the gods held sov'reign sway,
Our fathers lov'd to say

That the bright gods with tender care enfold
The fortunes of Japan,

Blessing the land with many an holy spell:
And what they lov'd to tell

We of this later age ourselves do prove;
For every living man

May feast his eyes on tokens of their love.

Countless are the hosts attendant

On the heav'n-establish'd throne
Of the Mikado, bright descendant
Of the goddess of the Sun:
But on thee his special grace

Lights to-day, for thou canst trace

From king to king thy noble birth
To the lords of all the earth;
And to thee the word is given
Sacred missives to convey

From the resplendent Son of Heaven
To the far distant limits of Cathay.

May the great immortals dwelling
On the isles that line thy road,
And the gods who in the swelling

Billows make their dread abode,

Gather round and safely guide thee,

While, that nought but good betide thee,
That Great Spirit* in whose hand

Lie the fortunes of our land,
And all the gods of heaven and earth,
Flutt'ring down on airy pinions,

From the country of thy birth

Waft thee to Cathay's unknown dominions!

And when, thine embassage concluded,
Hither again thou think'st to come,
May the same great gods that brooded
O'er thy going, bring thee home;

What divinity should be understood by this term is a matter of debate among the native commentators. Probably it refers to Ohoanamuchi, the aboriginal monarch of the province of Idzumo, who, according to the national traditions, peacefully relinquished the sovereignty of the country to the Mikado's ancestors, the heaven-descended gods, on the condition of receiving from them divine honours. One of the most interesting questions connected with the semi-fabulous early Japanese history is that, as to whether this tradition may be interpreted so as to warrant the belief of the existence in Japan of a pre-Japanese civilisation.

G