Anthology of Japanese Literature Read Online Free Page A

anthologies of poetry. It was compiled in the middle of the eighth century, but it includes material of a much earlier date—one cannot say with certainty just how early. There are about 4,500 poems in the "Man'y ō sh ū ," and they display a greater variety of form and subject than any other collection. In particular the long poems —ch ō ka or nagauta— have a sustained power that could never be achieved in the tanka of thirty-one syllables which was to be the dominant verse form in Japan for centuries. Even in the shorter poems of the "Man'y ō sh ū " there is a passion and a directness that later poets tended to polish away.
    The translations here given were made by the Japanese Classics Translation Committee under the auspices of the Nippon Gaku-jutsu Shink ō kai. The poet Ralph Hodgson was among those responsible for these excellent versions.
Your basket, with your pretty basket,
Your trowel, with your little trowel,
Maiden, picking herbs on this hillside,
I would ask you: Where is your home?
Will you not tell me your name?
Over the spacious Land of Yamato
It is I who reign so wide and far,
It is I who rule so wide and far.
I myself, as your lord, will tell you
Of my home, and my name.
    Attributed to Emperor Y Å« ryaku (418-479)
    Climbing Kagu-yama and looking upon the land
Countless are the mountains in Yamato,
But perfect is the heavenly hill of Kagu;
When I climb it and survey my realm,
Over the wide plain the smoke-wreaths rise and rise,
Over the wide lake the gulls are on the wing;
A beautiful land it is, the Land of Yamato!
    Emperor Jomei (593-641)
    Upon the departure of Prince Ō tsu for the capital after his secret visit to the Shrine of Ise
To speed my brother
Parting for Yamato,
In the deep of night I stood
Till wet with the dew of dawn.
    The lonely autumn mountains
Are hard to pass over
Even when two go together—
How does my brother cross them all alone!
    Princess Ō ku (661-701)
    . .
In the sea of Iwami,
By the cape of Kara,
There amid the stones under sea
Grows the deep-sea miru weed;
There along the rocky strand
Grows the sleek sea tangle.
    Like the swaying sea tangle,
Unresisting would she lie beside me—
My wife whom I love with a love
Deep as the miru -growing ocean.
But few are the nights
We two have lain together.
    Away I have come, parting from her
Even as the creeping vines do part.
My heart aches within me;
I turn back to gaze—
But because of the yellow leaves
Of Watari Hill,
Flying and fluttering in the air,
I cannot see plainly
My wife waving her sleeve to me.
Now as the moon, sailing through the cloud-rift
Above the mountain of Yakami,
Disappears, leaving me full of regret,
So vanishes my love out of sight;
Now sinks at last the sun,
Coursing down the western sky.
    I thought myself a strong man,
But the sleeves of my garment
Are wetted through with tears.
ENVOYS
    My black steed
Galloping fast,
Away have I come,
Leaving under distant skies
The dwelling place of my love.
    Oh, yellow leaves
Falling on the autumn hill,
Cease a while
To fly and flutter in the air,
That I may see my love's dwelling place!
    Kakinomoto Hitomaro (Seventh Century)
    On the occasion of the temporary enshrinement of Princess Asuka
Across the river of the bird-flying Asuka
Stepping-stones are laid in the upper shallows,
And a plank bridge over the lower shallows.
The water-frond waving along the stones,
Though dead, will reappear.
The river-tresses swaying by the bridge
Wither, but they sprout again.
    How is it, O Princess, that you have
Forgotten the morning bower
And forsaken the evening bower
Of him, your good lord and husband—
You who did stand handsome like a water-frond,
And who would lie with him,
Entwined like tender river-tresses?
    No more can he greet you. You make your eternal abode
At the Palace of Kinohe whither oft in your lifetime
He and you made holiday together,
Bedecked with flowers in