The Snow-Woman, or Snow-Spectre, assumes various forms; but in most
of the old folk-tales she appears as a beautiful phantom, whose
embrace is death. (A very curious story about her can be found in my
"Kwaidan.")
Yuki-Onna--
Yos[=o] kushi mo
Atsu k[=o]ri;
Sasu-k[=o]gai ya
K[=o]ri naruran.
[_As for the Snow-Woman,--even her best comb, if I mistake
not, is made of thick ice; and her hair-pin[36], too, is
probably made of ice._]
[Footnote 36: _K[=o]gai_ is the name now given to a quadrangular bar
of tortoise-shell passed under the coiffure, which leaves only the
ends of the bar exposed. The true hair-pin is called _kanzashi_.]
Honrai wa
K[=u] naru mono ka,
Yuki-Onna?
Yoku-yoku mireba
Ichi-butsu mo nashi!
[_Was she, then, a delusion from the very first, that
Snow-Woman,--a thing that vanishes into empty space? When I
look carefully all about me, not one trace of her is to be
seen!_]
Yo-akéréba
Kiété yuku é wa
Shirayuki[37] no
Onna to mishi mo
Yanagi nari-keri!
[_Having vanished at daybreak (that Snow-Woman), none
could say whither she had gone. But what had seemed to be a
snow-white woman became indeed a willow-tree!_]
[Footnote 37: The term _shirayuki_, as here used, offers an example
of what Japanese poets call _Keny[=o]gen_, or "double-purpose words."
Joined to the words immediately following, it makes the phrase
"white-snow woman" (_shirayuki no onna_);--united with the words
immediately preceding, it suggests the reading, "whither-gone
not-knowing" (_yuku é wa shira[zu]_).]
Yuki-Onna
Mité wa yasathiku,
Matsu wo ori
Nama-daké hishigu
Chikara ari-keri!
[_Though the Snow-Woman appears to sight slender and gentle,
yet, to snap the pine-trees asunder and to crush the live
bamboos, she must have had strength._]
Samukésa ni
Zotto[38] wa surédo
Yuki-Onna,--
Yuki oré no naki
Yanagi-goshi ka mo!
[_Though the Snow-Woman makes one shiver by her coldness,--ah, the
willowy grace of her form cannot be broken by the snow (i.e. charms us
in spite of the cold)._]
[Footnote 38: _Zotto_ is a difficult word to render literally: perhaps
the nearest English equivalent is "thrilling." _Zotto suru_ signifies
"to cause a thrill" or "to give a shock," or "to make shiver;"
and of a very beautiful person it is said "_Zotto-suru hodo no
bijin_,"--meaning! "She is so pretty that it gives one a shock merely
to look at her." The term _yanagi-goshi_ ("willow-loins") in the last
line is a common expression designating a slender and graceful figure;
and the reader should observe that the first half of the term is
ingeniously made to do double duty here,--suggesting, with the
context, not only the grace of willow branches weighed down by snow,
but also the grace of a human figure that one must stop to admire, in
spite of the cold.]