{"collection":"shi","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/shi/msj/msj20.htm","path":"shi/msj/msj20.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/shi/msj/msj20.htm","text":"The Master-Singers of Japan, by Clara A. Walsh, [1914]\nKamo no Ch\u014dmei, the author of that charming little classic the \"H\u014dj\u014dki,\" written in A.D. 1212, was guardian of the Shinto shrine of Kamo in Kioto. He was appointed by the retired Mikado Go Toba to a post in the Department of Japanese Poetry. Being refused the succession to his father as superior guardian of Kamo, ho retired to a hermitage on Oharayama, near Kioto. He is the author of several essays on poetical subjects, and many poems.\nBy Kamo no Ch\u014dmei\nNeither at twilight nor at grey of dawn,\n Would I appear the sacred West to spurn,\n Yet at this evening hour am I forsworn!\n Though in the West the lingering glories burn,\n Le! in the East I watch with reverent eyes,\n Through purple mist, the full-orbed moon arise! p. 102\n How can I help it! Though my face I turn\n From the blest Regions\u00a0* to the Eastern skies.\nBy Ch\u014dmei\nSince bright and clear the little river winds\n Over its shining pebbles to the sea,\n The fair moon seeks its limpid stream and finds\n A mirror for her radiant purity.\nHere, while I stand alone,\n Shadows mysterious thrown\n By the dark mountain pines\n Lie at my feet.\n At the clear moon I gaze,\n Muse in a thousand ways\n On what my soul divines\n Dimly of life.\nThe scattered maple-leaves are blown\n From wooded hill and mountain-side,\n And in a rich confusion thrown,\n Mass in the valley far and wide.\n Hushed is the little streamlet's tone\n By the red splendour on its tide.\nUnknown\nThe frosty moonlight cold and white\n Shines it so clear, that we may see\n Each maple-leaf float from its tree,\n And weave a perfect tapestry\n In silence of the Autumn night?\nBy Arakida Moritake (1472-1540)\nWhere the soft drifts lie\n Of fallen blossoms, dying,\n Did one flutter now,\n From earth to its own brown bough?\nAh, no! \u2019twas a butterfly,\n Like fragile blossom flying!\nBy Ochikochi no Mitsune\n\u2019Tis hard indeed to choose which bloom to pluck\n Of all these gleaming white chrysanthemums,\n So thickly spangled with the earliest frost!\nBy Matsunaga Teitoku (1564-1645)\nBrief be my life as Heaven wills;\n Give me, O gods, the true heart of a flower;\n The morning-glory who fulfils\n Her perfect destiny within the hour,\n With the same energy that thrills\n The sturdy fir-trees that for centuries tower!\nBy Matsunaga\n\u2019Tis now the season of the Harvest Moon.\n Men gaze the livelong night, and sow the seed\n That brings a sweet siesta on the morrow!\n102:* The West Region of the Buddhist Paradise.","title":"The Master-Singers of Japan: XIX.","type":"page"}