ON THE DEATH OF THE MIKADO TENJI[144] _By One of His Ladies_ Alas! poor mortal maid! unfit to hold High converse with the glorious gods above,[145] Each morn that breaks still finds me unconsoled, Each hour still hears me sighing for thy love. Wert thou a precious stone, I'd clasp thee tight Around mine arm; wert thou a silken dress I'd ne'er discard thee, either day or night:-- Last night, sweet love! I dreamt I saw thy face. ON THE DEATH OF THE POET'S MISTRESS How fondly did I yearn to gaze (For was there not the dear abode Of her whose love lit up my days?) On Karu's often-trodden road. But should I wander in and out, Morning and evening ceaselessly, Our loves were quickly noised about, For eyes enough there were to see. So, trusting that as tendrils part To meet again, so we might meet, As in deep rocky gorge my heart, Unseen, unknown, in secret beat. But like the sun at close of day, And as behind a cloud the moon, So passed my gentle love away, An autumn leaf ta'en all too soon. When came the fatal messenger, I knew not what to say or do:-- But who might sit and simply hear? Rather, methought, of all my woe. Haply one thousandth part might find Relief if my due feet once more, Where she so often trod, should wind Through Karu's streets and past her door. But mute that noise, nor all the crowd Could show her like, or soothe my care; So, calling her dear name aloud, I waved my sleeve in blank despair. _Hitomaro_. ELEGY ON THE POET'S WIFE The gulls that twitter on the rush-grown shore When fall the shades of night, That o'er the waves in loving pairs do soar When shines the morning light-- 'Tis said e'en these poor birds delight To nestle each beneath his darling's wing That, gently fluttering, Through the dark hours wards off the hoar-frost's might. Like to the stream that finds The downward path it never may retrace, Like to the shapeless winds, Poor mortals pass away without a trace:-- So she I love has left her place, And, in a corner of my widowed couch, Wrapped in the robe she wove me, I must crouch, Far from her fond embrace. _Nibi_. ON THE DEATH OF PRINCE HINAMI I When began the earth and heaven, By the banks of heaven's river[146] All the mighty gods assembled, All the mighty gods in council. And, for that her sov'reign grandeur The great goddess of the day-star Rul'd th' ethereal realms of heaven, Downward through the many-piled Welkin did they waft her grandson, Bidding him, till earth and heaven, Waxing old, should fall together, O'er the middle land of reed-plains, O'er the land of waving rice-fields, Spread abroad his power imperial. II