Page:Japanese Peasant Songs.djvu/53

By the Long Paddy Path

Old Mr. Kurogi, whose father was a not very well-to-do samurai, recited this verse one evening to a few neighbors, mostly women, as they awaited a moonrise. It was the only time I heard it during the course of a year in Suye. On the surface a simple little song of country life, Kurogi claimed it had another meaning as follows: The aze michi (literally the path or dyke between rice paddies on which may be planted azuki beans) is the line down a woman’s stomach leading to the mame (literally bean, symbolically, vulva) and the mame no ha is the clitoris.

The form of the song is regular dodoitsu.

51

Nagai aze-michi Yoi k’sh’ta[1] kureta Suso ga nuretaro Mame no ha de

By the long paddy path You have come well— You must have wet your hem[2] By the bean leaves.

What Will You Do?

This text is of an irregular form like a hayashi, but it was not regarded as one of the Rokuchōshi cycle in Suye.

52

Omaya dōsuru Heso made Ue sa made irete Naka de oretara Dōnasaru

What will you do If, when in Up to the navel, It breaks inside— What will you do?

Though I Am Not Good

This song involves a pivot word, irekuri, meaning literally to put in and take out as at a pawnshop, but also having in this song a second sexual connotation. The form is regular dodoitsu.

53

Dodoitsu heta demo Irekurya jōzu Kesa mo s’chiya de Homerareta A korya korya

Though not good at dodoitsu, I am good at business.[3] Even this morning The pawn broker praised my cleverness.

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1. Perhaps from Yoku kite.
2. I.e., the hem of your kimono—either a man or a woman might thus “wet his hem.”
3. Meaning also that I am good at the art of love.