Written on Water

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Written on Water Page 4

by Takashi Kojima


  Pray, let me have a glimpse

  Of my darling love at home.

  (137)

  The following elegy indicates that Hitomaro had a wife in the capital whom he had some reason to hide from others' knowledge. From his two long poems, he is presumed to have had two wives.

  47

  Karu is the town

  Where my fair, sweet darling dwells.

  Should I often visit her,

  Our intimacy would be revealed.

  Harboring my love

  Hidden deep in my heart

  As in the depths of a pool

  Girt round by cliffs,

  I felt secure

  As riding a Large ship,

  Confident

  That we would meet anon.

  One day word was brought.

  As the orb of day

  Fades away at eventide,

  As the bright full moon

  Hides behind murky clouds,

  So my darLing wife,

  Whose embrace was

  Smooth as green seaweed,

  Had fallen, like an autumn leaf.

  At the news of her death,

  I did not know

  What to say or do.

  Hoping to allay

  Even a thousandth part

  Of my grief,

  I betook myself in tears

  To the market of Karu,

  where my wife was wont to go.

  There I watched and listened.

  But no trace of her voice was there,

  Not even the birds

  In the nearby hills were heard.

  No face

  Resembled hers.

  Nothing could 1 do

  But call her name

  And wave my arms in fain.

  (207)

  The following lyric is one of two envoys to the preceding long poem.

  48

  The hillsides are ablaze

  With glorious tints of red and gold,

  So dense that

  i've strayed from the path

  To the grassy grove

  Of my beloved wife.

  (208)

  The following two short elegies (Nos. 49 and 50) are the envoys of a long elegy on his late wife, which is not included here.

  49

  Full bright shines the moon,

  As it did this night Last year.

  Distant has become the day

  When my late dear wife and I

  Shared the joy of watching the moon.

  (211)

  50

  Burying the corpse

  Of my darling wife

  In a dreary mountain grave,

  in deep grief,

  Like one dead, I came down the trail.

  (212)

  51

  My beloved wife

  Must await my coming home,

  Little knowing that I lie

  Pillowed amidst the crags

  Of wild Mt. Kamo.

  (223)

  52

  Our great Lord of lords,

  Gracious holy god,

  Dwells above the rainy clouds,

  Where the thunder rolls and peals

  Amid flashes of Lightning.

  (235)

  53

  Plovers' plaintive cries,

  Sweeping o'er the evening waves

  Of Lake Biwa,

  Overwhelm our hearts,

  With yearninas for sweet byaone days.

  (266)

  54

  Men of yore as well,

  Pining after their sweet loves,

  Must needs have passed

  Many painful sleepless nights,

  Just as have I.

  (497)

  55

  Swept away

  By the haste of departure,

  l Left without a gentle word

  With my dear wife.

  Fathomless is my yearning.

  (503)

  56

  In the ocean of the skies,

  Waves of clouds rise and faLL—

  Fair and clear the lunar boat,

  Passing in and out of clouds,

  Floats amid the sea of stars.

  (1068)

  57

  Far above the roar

  Of the rapids of the stream,

  About the peak

  Of graceful Mt. Yutsuki,

  Hover heavy clouds.

  (1088)

  58

  We ore Like foam,

  Always coming, going

  On the stream

  Rushing down the vole

  Of Mt. Makimuku.

  (1269)

  59

  For my dear one's attire,

  I hove put my heart

  Into weaving this white cloth.

  When spring comes,

  What color shall I dye the robe?

  (1281)

  60

  The year has worn away;

  Now in the dead of night

  Wild geese cry

  Across starry skies

  Where sails the bright full moon.

  (1701)

  61

  Never can I see the beach

  Where I passed a happy moment

  With my dear wife

  But I'm overwhelmed with grief.

  Last autumn, she passed away,

  Like an autumn leaf.

  (1796)

  62

  Sorrow fills my heart

  As I come to this strand,

  This lovely seashore,

  Which l once enjoyed with my dear wife,

  Years ago, when she lived.

  (1798)

  63

  In the vernal fields

  Warblers sweetly sing and part,

  While we sadly weep and part.

  As you return home,

  Keep me in your heart.

  (1890)

  64

  With the coming of spring,

  The lovely soul of my dear girl,

  Fair and pliable

  As a willow leaf,

  Has now taken hold of me.

  (1896)

  65

  Every time I see her

  With her pink cheeks

  Fair as the Weaver Maiden,

  I yearn for her,

  Wed to another though she is.

  (1999)

  66

  How brief

  Our ardor,

  After our Long-pent love.

  Too short,

  Our time together,

  Yet you ask me for your sash.

  (2023)

  67

  What is there to regret,

  If I couLd but hear the voice

  Of my darling love,

  Sweet as the songs of birds

  in the tinted autumn hills?

  (2239)

  68

  The girl for whom I long-

  Let her die. What do I care?

  Many say that

  However Long I live,

  She'll never give her heart to me.

  (2355)

  69

  At daybreak you rise

  And through the dewy field go,

  With your robe hem wet with dew,

  l will also rise betimes,

  With my hem wet with dew.

  (2357)

  70

  What would it avail

  Should I Live to old age?

  Even should I Live long,

  'Tis well nigh impossible

  For me to meet my love.

  (2358)

  71

  Shunning the public eye,

  Seldom do I meet him,

  Who is my love and life.

  Were I a breeze,

  l could sport about him.

  (2359)

  72

  Never, since I Left

  My mother's tender care,

  Has my plight

  Been so sad and dire.

  I am entirely lost.

  (2368)

 
; 73

  As all other women do,

  And I pass sad, sleepLess nights,

  Dying for a sight of you,

  Who are everything to me.

  (2369)

  74

  "Let her die from Love

  If she will. What should 1 care

  If her heart breaks?"

  That must be what he thinks.

  Not a word he writes to me.

  (2370)

  75

  There's no time of the day

  When I don't think of you.

  But at eventide,

  So intense becomes my love

  That I know not what to do.

  (2373)

  76

  I so hope

  That those who see

  The light of day after me

  Stray not away from the beaten path

  Into the thorny path of love.

  (2375)

  77

  So Lost in Love

  Night and day

  Gone is my sense

  Of life

  Worthy of a stalwart man.

  (2376)

  78

  No more do I care to live

  On the painful rack

  Of unrequited love.

  How I wish I'd died

  Ere I lost my heart to her!

  (2377)

  79

  I know well enough

  That he'll never come to me,

  And my love is all in vain.

  Yet 1 wonder how it is

  That I keep Loving him.

  (2378)

  80

  Walking back and forth,

  Looking toward the ferry,

  Anxiously I await

  The dear beloved of my heart,

  Coming for our tryst.

  (2379)

  81

  So ardent

  Is my desire to meet you—

  For the two nights past

  I have pined away

  As if for a thousand years.

  (2381)

  82

  Crowds pass along

  The royal city's roads,

  Dazzling in the sun.

  But among them only one

  Is the lover of my heart.

  (2382)

  83

  Were you to visit me

  Every night,

  Our Love would be revealed.

  How I wish this happy night

  Was a thousand years long!

  (2387)

  84

  O that this sweet night

  Would never pass away-

  After you are gone,

  I will be in agony

  Till you return to me in the depths of darkness.

  (2389)

  85

  It was but Last night

  That I glimpsed her.

  But beyond all help,

  This morn I am consumed

  By flaming love.

  (2391)

  86

  Since I've known my Love,

  AIl the dearer has she grown.

  I Long for her

  Far more than when I

  But saw her at a distance.

  (2392)

  87

  Merely a single glimpse,

  And gone—

  That instant

  Has left me worn away,

  Thin as a morning shadow.

  (2394)

  88

  In all my days,

  Never have I seen a girl

  Of such Lovely grace.

  O that I could please my eyes

  With another sight of her!

  (2396)

  89

  There goes my Love,

  Casting not a glance at me,

  Seeming to say,

  "Let him die from love. Who cares?"

  Looking prim, she passes my gate.

  (2401)

  90

  Now the yeaar is at an end.

  And my Life is at an end.

  But I'll never forget

  My sweet one, with whom, when young,

  I pledged my troth of Love.

  (2410)

  91

  My underclothes

  Somehow hove come Loose.

  Never shall I disclose our love

  Till l see him face to face

  And confirm his love for me.

  (2413)

  92

  As the sky we see

  And the earth on which we life

  Have no bounds or end,

  So our passion is endless.

  We'll never cease to meet and love.

  (2419)

  93

  Gazing at the moon—

  It shines the same everywhere.

  So our love is e'er the same,

  Though lofty mountains

  Keep my wife and me apart.

  (2420)

  94

  To be sure, I have a horse,

  But to meet you secretly,

  I have come on foot

  Across the hills and vales,

  Driven by my Love for you.

  (2425)

  95

  In vain is my life,

  Like a word written on water.

  Praying to the gods,

  l have vowed

  That I'll meet my darling Love.

  (2433)

  96

  Though she lives

  At the end of the earth

  Where heaven meets the firmament

  And clouds are born and rise,

  Yet with whom should 1 lie

  But the darling of my heart?

  (2451)

  97

  Gazing at the moon,

  My distant Love

  Must think of me.

  Let no speck of cloud

  Dim the lunar brilliance.

  (2460)

  98

  I am Lost in Love for my dear one,

  And meLancholy ruLes me.

  In my tear-fiLLed eyes,

  Even the grass by my abode

  Droops and withers.

  (2465)

  99

  As a snowbell fair

  Heavy Laden with clear dew

  Bends its head,

  So I hang my head,

  Heavy Laden with deep Love.

  (2469)

  100

  As you bind

  Stout sedge on the hills,

  If you bind me

  To a pledge of Love,

  Then l wiLL tryst with you.

  (2477)

  101

  Would that I couLd see

  My dear Love, who remains hidden

  At home,

 

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