{"collection":"shi","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/shi/msj/msj23.htm","path":"shi/msj/msj23.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/shi/msj/msj23.htm","text":"The Master-Singers of Japan, by Clara A. Walsh, [1914]\nHe was born A.D. 1730 at Matsuzaka-Is\u00e9. One of the great names of Japanese literature. He was a pupil of Mabuchi. He was chiefly instrumental in restoring Shint\u014d to its original supremacy, and revived interest in the ancient literature. His works are numerous, one of the greatest being the Commentary on the Kojiki, in forty-four volumes, which is an encyclopedia of ancient literature.\nBy Motoori\n\u00a0\u00a0O sacred Isles! Would strangers know\n The Spirit of Yamato's hero race?\n \u00a0\u00a0Point where the cherry-blossoms blow,\u00a0*\n Veiling the rugged mountain's frowning face.\n \u00a0\u00a0Sun-flushed and heavenly fair,\n !Scenting the morning air!\nBy Shiroi Uk\u014d\n(From \"Hana Momiji,\" 1898)\nPART I\nUnder the shadow of the ancient firs\n That clothe with sombre green the craggy height,\n Again the hush of mystic silence stirs:\n Whose bamboo flute speaks music to the night?\n Is it some sun-bronzed fisher-lad would sigh\n For other joys than those his work-day world,\n Bitter with salt and seaweed, can supply\u2014\n So pours his soul in music to the sky?\nNight after night he seeks the fir-grove's shade;\n To the vague moonbeams filtering from above,\n To the dense darkness, or the stars displayed,\n Still sound those yearning cadences of love.\n And first the fisher's flute was heard to play,\n When a whole day had passed since courtiers proud\n Of our great Lord had wandered by this way,\n And the long night their revelry held sway.\n They wandered forth upon the beach, the night\n Rang with keen wit, and laughter unsubdued,\n The while upon her course of crystal light\n The Autumn moon's fair barque her course pursued.\nA day had passed, since ladies of our Lord,\n Mooring their pleasure-barge, in revel gay,\n Tuned all their golden lutes in sweet accord\n With the wind's song that through the fir-tops soared.\nPART II\nOn nights when the dew fell coldly\n \u00a0\u00a0On the reeds of the sullen shore,\n He came\u2014and his flute sang boldly\n \u00a0\u00a0To the waves, and the swirling roar\n Of the winds of the pines, in the distant crags\n \u00a0\u00a0As its fierce gusts downward tore.\nOn nights when the hail beat wildly\n \u00a0\u00a0And the waves on the beach ice-bound,\n He came\u2014and his flute sang mildly,\n \u00a0\u00a0Subdued with a mournful sound.\nOn nights when the rain poured madly\n \u00a0\u00a0And merged with the sea's weird moan,\n He came\u2014and his flute sang sadly,\n \u00a0\u00a0Languid and faint of tone.\nPART III\nChanged has the Autumn-moon to-night,\n \u00a0\u00a0So long his love endures, p. 111\n And still with ever-new delight\n \u00a0\u00a0The bamboo flute allures.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the wild storm's acclaim,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Troubled its notes became;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Echoes from pine-trees blown,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clear grew its liquid tone;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mad with the maddened sea,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frenzied its song would be!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stifled with rocks wave-swept,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dully its slow notes crept.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even the cloud that floats\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over Onoy\u00e9 stayed,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Listening to silver notes,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then to some fainter played.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What wonder, there descends\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From the high bower\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some one absorbed in thought\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At this still hour!\nAwhile the flute had ceased to pour\n Its importunities to earth and sky;\n But hark! how, louder than before,\n The music of the bamboo thrills on high.\n Now a new harmony the air pervades,\n And in accord, how sweetly! with the flute;\n Clear as the trill of warbler in the glades\n Ring the soft accents of a golden lute!\nSometime the clouds from Onoy\u00e9 descending\n From the pine-scented rocks beneath them bore,\n On their wide wings, the sweet musicians, tending\n To those fair seas whereon, with altered helm,\n The moon's fair barque steered straight towards them, wending\n Her course eternal to the eternal Realm.\n108:* The wild cherry-blossom\u2014yama-zakura\u2014is, in Japan, the emblem of the warrior, ready to die for Emperor and country, in the full vigour of life and beauty, as the petals of the Sakura blossom flutter, still lovely and fragrant, to the earth.","title":"The Master-Singers of Japan: XXII.","type":"page"}