(_Probably from the sixteenth century_)
Sama wa tennin!
_Sore-sore_,
_Tontorori!_
Otome no sugata
Kumo no kayoiji
Chirato mita!
_Tontorori!_
Otome no sugata
Kumo no kayoiji
Chirato mita!
_Tontorori!_
My beloved an angel is![94]
_Sore-sore!_
_Tontorori!_
The maiden's form,
In the passing of clouds,
In a glimpse I saw!
_Tontorori!_
The maiden's form,
In the passage of clouds,
In a glimpse I saw!
_Tontorori!_
[94] Lit., "a Tennin";--that is to say, an inhabitant
of the Buddhist heaven. The Tennin are usually
represented as beautiful maidens.
My next selection is from a love-song of uncertain date, belonging to
the Kamakura period (1186-1332). This fragment is chiefly remarkable for
its Buddhist allusions, and for its very regular form of stanza:--
Makoto yara,
Kashima no minato ni
Miroku no mifune ga
Tsuite gozarimosu.
_Yono!_
_Sa iyoe, iyoe!_
_Sa iyoe, iyoe!_
Hobashira wa,
Kogane no hobashira;
Ho niwa Hokkekyo no
Go no man-makimono.
_Sa iyoe, iyoe!_
_Sa iyoe, iyoe!_
* * * * *
I know not if 't is true
That to the port of Kashima
The august ship of Miroku[95] has come!
_Yono!_
_Sa iyoe, iyoe!_
_Sa iyoe, iyoe!_
[95] Miroku Bosatsu (Maitreya Bodhisattva) is the next
great Buddha to come.
As for the mast,
It is a mast of gold;--
The sail is the fifth august roll
Of the Hokkekyo![96]
_Sa iyoe, iyoe!_
_Sa iyoe, iyoe_
[96] Japanese popular name for the Chinese version of
the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra.--Many of the old
Buddhist scriptures were written upon long scrolls,
called _makimono_,--a name also given to pictures
printed upon long rolls of silk or paper.
* * * * *
Otherwise interesting, with its queer refrain, is another song called
"Agemaki,"--belonging to one of the curious class of lyrical dramas
known as _Saibara_. This may be found fault with as somewhat "free"; but
I cannot think it more open to objection than some of our much-admired
Elizabethan songs which were probably produced at about the same time:--