{"collection":"shi","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/shi/msj/msj13.htm","path":"shi/msj/msj13.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/shi/msj/msj13.htm","text":"The Master-Singers of Japan, by Clara A. Walsh, [1914]\nBy Komachi\nSwift fade the hues of hill and wold,\n Glories of Spring and Fall depart,\n More evanescent still, behold\n The fading blossoms of the heart!\nMay the Springs purely flow\n \u00a0\u00a0And sickness cease;\n May victory crown our House\n And treasure-stores increase;\n Evil no longer grow,\n And all the world know peace!\nThe waves are still on the four seas,\n Soft blow the time-winds, yet the trees\n Sway not, nor rustling foliage stirs.\n In such an age blest are the firs\n That meet and age together.\n Nor heavenward look and reverent gaze,\n Nor words of gratitude and praise\n Our thanks can tell, that all our days\n Pass in this age with blessings stored\n By bounty of our Sovereign Lord!\n(Verse on the Gate of Miya-Yaegaki)\nOn the wild hills that tower to the sky,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There where they fell,\n The dead leaves lie\n In rustling heaps piled high,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There the gods dwell!\n(AU-SAKA, LAKE BIWA)\nBy Semi-Maro\nKnown and Unknown, the stranger guest,\n Returning friends whom comrades greet,\n Up to the Hill of Meeting's\u00a0* crest,\n Press the wayfarers' eager feet.\n For here the fateful Barrier stands,\n And some will part\u2014and some will meet.\nSleep, baby, sleep!\n On mountains steep p. 72\n The children of the hare are straying.\n Why are their soft brown ears so long and slender,\n Peeping above the rocks where they are playing?\nBecause their mother, ere they yet were born,\n Ate the Loquat leaves in the dewy morn,\n And the bamboo grass long and slender\u2014\n That's why the ears of baby-hares are long!\n Sleep, baby, sleep! to the lilt of my song!\n71:* The allusion is to the Octroi or Barriers formerly existing on the boundaries of the different provinces.","title":"The Master-Singers of Japan: XII.","type":"page"}