Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/412

of prose and verse by three authors, entitled Hana Momiji, or "Flower and Autumn Leaves" (1898):—

The Bamboo Flute by the Shore

I
"In the shade of the firs of the craggy cliff,
To-night again a bamboo flute is heard:
Is it some fisher-boy, solacing his heart
From the woes of a world bitter with salt and seaweed?

Moonlight or dark, he little cares,
Night after night he visits these fir-trees' shade.
In the music of his bamboo flute
There may be heard cadences which tell of yearning love.

A day had passed since the courtiers of the lord of the land
Held night-long revel here, wandering forth upon the beach,
While the bark of the autumn moon
Pursued its crystal course;
When the fisher's fiute was for the first time heard.

A day had passed since the ladies of our lord,
Mooring their gay pleasure-boat, held revel here,
Attuning the music of their golden lutes
To the song of the breeze through the fir-trees on the cliffs;
When the fisher's flute was for the first time heard.

II
On nights when the dew lay heavy on the reeds of the chilly shore,
And the wind of the firs came in gusts down from the crags,
He never failed to come—this fisher-boy:
His bamboo flute was heard in clear-sounding notes.

On nights when the rattling of the hail was loud,
And the ripples on the beach were changed to ice,
He never failed to come—this fisher-boy:
His bamboo flute was heard in subdued tones.