{"collection":"shi","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/shi/msj/msj16.htm","path":"shi/msj/msj16.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/shi/msj/msj16.htm","text":"The Master-Singers of Japan, by Clara A. Walsh, [1914]\n(Namino-Hana)\nBy Yasuhide\nThe wild flowers fade, the maple-leaves,\n Touched by frost-fingers, float to earth;\n But on the bosom of the sea,\n The flowers to which her waves give birth\n Fade not, like blossoms of the land,\n Nor feel the chill of Autumn's hand.\nBy Ransetsu\nOn a cold, snowy morning,\n Somebody's child picking up,\n With stiff, chilled fingers,\n Empty tins in the street.\nBy Is\u00e9\nCold as the wind of early Spring,\n Chilling the buds that still lie sheathed p. 88\n In their brown armour, with its sting\n And the bare branches withering\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0So seems the human heart to me!\n \u00a0\u00a0Cold as the March wind's bitterness;\n \u00a0\u00a0I am alone, none comes to see\n \u00a0\u00a0Or cheer me in these days of stress.\nWhen the Spring comes, in all green things that grow\n New pulse of Life beats warmly, all aglow,\n Long are the golden days.\n Fragrant and moist the gentle zephyrs blow\n Through the warm haze.\n Why should the flowers alone make haste to go,\n Swift to depart from us, who love them so?\nIn summer-time awhile the breeze will bring\n Over the fence a drift of petals fair,\n From the next garden's cherry blossoming;\n I would that rather the strong wind would bear\n The tree itself in fragrant beauty there\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Into my garden\nI know all blooms must wither at the last\u2014\n Fair is their life, but limited and brief;\n Yet when I see their fragile beauty past,\n Filled is my heart with an unreasoning grief,\n Through the unchanging pageant of the years\n The passing of the Spring is sad to tears!\nBy Motoyoshi no Mik\u014d\nFair and unchanged in hue the flowers appear,\n As in last Springtime, exquisite to see,\n But one with whom I saw them bloom last year\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hath changed to me!\nThe croaking frogs that find their lodging here,\n Would seem to feel the loneliness of night\n As much as I, so plaintive is their cry\n Through the long hours until the morning light.\nThe stranger viewing from afar\n Yoshino's far-famed cherry-trees,\n Veiling each mountain crag and scar,\n A soft white cloud is all he sees!\nBy Sugawara Adaijin\nO cherry-blossom loved so well,\n If you do not forget your lord,\n Absent from you this April-time,\n Send me your fragrant message, stored\n In the safe keeping of the breeze,\n Blowing towards me! Flowers adored,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I think of you!\nBy Sanesada\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I hear the cuckoo calling,\n Calling, while the dawn's cold dews are falling,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A lonely lullaby.\n Yet when my eyes would seek her,\nNought can my gaze descry\n But grey mists fainter growing,\n But white moon ghostly showing\n Pale in the morning sky!\nNone but the waning moon of morn\n Heard the Hototogisu's cry\n In anguish from her heart's-blood torn\n Thrill upwards to the paling sky!\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Autumn Plain\n Is robed in rich brocade,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With flowered pattern\n Lavishly displayed.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whence come those dyes\n Of variegated hue?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Since crystal clear\n And colourless the dew?","title":"The Master-Singers of Japan: XV.","type":"page"}