And on either side came pressing My wife and my children dear, Fluttering like birds, and with garments Besprinkled with many a tear; And clasped my hands and would stay me, For 'twas so hard to part; But mine awe of the sovereign edict Constrained my loving heart. I went; yet each time the pathway O'er a pass through the mountains did wind, I'd turn me round--ah! so lovingly!-- And ten thousand times gaze behind. But farther still, and still farther, Past many a land I did roam, And my thoughts were all thoughts of sadness, All loving, sad thoughts of home;-- Till I came to the shores of Sumi, Where the sovereign gods I prayed, With off'rings so humbly offered-- And this the prayer that I made:-- "Being mortal, I know not how many The days of my life may be; And how the perilous pathway That leads o'er the plain of the sea, "Past unknown islands will bear me:-- But grant that while I am gone No hurt may touch father or mother, Or the wife now left alone!" Yes, such was my prayer to the sea-gods; And now the unnumbered oars, And the ship and the seamen to bear me From breezy Naniha's shores, Are there at the mouth of the river:-- Oh! tell the dear ones at home, That I'm off as the day is breaking To row o'er the ocean foam. _Anon._ FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 132: Such frantic demonstrations of grief are very frequently mentioned in the early poetry, and sound strangely to those who are accustomed to the more than English reserve of the modern Japanese. Possibly, as in Europe, so in Japan, there may have been a real change of character in this respect.] [Footnote 133: The Mikado is meant. The feudal system did not grow up till many centuries later.] [Footnote 134: The N-a-h-i are sounded like our English word nigh, and therefore form but one syllable to the ear.] [Footnote 135: Anciently (and this custom is still followed in some parts of Japan) the hair of female children was cut short at the neck and allowed to hang down loosely till the age of eight. At twelve or thirteen the hair was generally bound up, though this ceremony was often frequently postponed till marriage. At the present day, the methods of doing the hair of female children, of grown-up girls, and of married women vary considerably.] [Footnote 136: The original of this stanza is obscure, and the native commentators have no satisfactory interpretation to offer.] [Footnote 137: In the original the title is "The Beggar's Dialogue," there being two poems, of which that here translated is the second. The first one, which is put into the mouth of an unmarried beggar, who takes a cheerier view of poverty, is not so well fitted for translation into English.]