Songs of a Cowherd/Silent House

by Itō Sachio

Silent House

Seven children of mine
Have gone out to play;
With a vase of camellias
I sit alone in the house.

Thinking it dead,
I brushed a fly off the screen,
But falling on the mat
It began to squirm.

I felt something amiss,
And now I know …
The locomotive factory
Is closed today.