Songs for Children Sung in Japan/Father, Mother
Father, Mother
Hakushū Kitahara
★
Listen to me, my dear little boy!
When loneliness o’er father crept
With the sparrows was he always playing.
From morn of father was he thinking,
When the sparrows’ family cried.
(That is your grandfather I am speaking of.)
After the sunset, of mother was he thinking.
(That is your grandmother I am speaking of.)
Father and mother were far away.
(Your grandfather and grandmother far away!)
In a poor, tumble-down house they lived,
But the children of the neighborhood came,
With plucked red lotus flowers came,
With plucked white lotus flowers came.