Written on Water Read online

  404

  Are you a doll bride

  Made of ferns

  From the Hakone Hills,

  Coming to bed

  With your sash so tightly knotted?

  (3370)

  405

  Who can behold

  The maiden

  Bleaching cloth

  In the crystal Tama waters

  And not be smitten?

  (3373)

  406

  To what shall I compare

  My dear lover?

  He's a graceful aster bloom,

  Which, like the stars of the sky, adorns

  The boundless Musashi Plain all the year.

  (3379)

  407

  Would I had a horse

  That could run without sound.

  I'd ride across

  The bridge of cleft boards

  And oft visit my sweet love.

  (3387)

  408

  Heaving great sighs,

  He can no more pass by your house

  Than mist avoid a mountaintop.

  Hey, lass, why not let him in,

  Lie with him, and let him go.

  (3388)

  409

  I will wove

  To the darling of my heart,

  Till the gate of her house

  Disappears from view

  Behind the hill.

  (3389)

  410

  As Mt. Tsukuba

  is always in view

  So I'm under the constant gaze

  Of my mother's wary eyes.

  For all that, our souls met.

  (3393)

  411

  As water plummets

  Down the sheer cliff

  Of Mt. Tsukuba,

  Roaring and foaming,

  So wild is my love.

  (3392)

  412

  Like seeing birds

  Flying through the trees

  Of Mt. Tsukuba,

  So I see you pass,

  Though once we lay together.

  (3396)

  413

  Even if everyone

  Reviled me,

  What should I care,

  So long as my darling

  Holds me dear and writes to me?

  (3398)

  414

  The Shinano Highway

  Is a newly opened road,

  Stony and rough.

  Wear good, new straw sandals,

  Lest you stumble.

  (3399)

  415

  Even pebbles

  In the River Chikuma

  Which you tred upon

  Are precious to me.

  Gladly I would gather them.

  (3400)

  416

  When my husband crossed Usui Pass,

  I saw him against

  The evening sun,

  Waving both arms—

  His heartfelt goodbye.

  (3402)

  417

  How sweet is my darling.

  Nightly lost in Love,

  In my arms I clasp her tight,

  Yet l never tire.

  Is there a better way

  I can show my love?

  (3404)

  418

  Try hard as I may

  No more can I bring the lovely girl

  Closer to me

  Than l can pull Mt. Tago

  To me with a rope.

  (3411)

  419

  Heedless of finding a ford,

  Once I crossed a river wide

  And I came upon a rapid stream.

  Likewise unawares I found myself

  In your tender, sturdy arms.

  (3413)

  420

  Could I but sleep with my dear love,

  Locked close in each other's arms,

  Till a rainbow rises high

  O'er the dike of Ikaho,

  I would have no worry.

  (3414)

  421

  As if in a dream,

  Flying over the stones

  Of the riverbed,

  l have come to see you now.

  Tell me if you Love me, dear.

  (3425)

  422

  My dear girl in the East

  Made a knot in my inner sash.

  Coming to Kyushu,

  I have had the knot untied

  By a charming maiden.

  (3427)

  423

  O pray, lovely maiden,

  At the post house,

  With horses' bells ringing,

  Let me drink at the spring

  From your fair cupped hands.

  (3439)

  The following poem is interpreted in two ways. Many scholars consider that it portrays a young man bantering with a girl for fun (version A), using euphemisms for the genital organs, while some scholars consider it a dialogue between two women (version B) arranging their children's marriage.

  424 A

  Hey, hey, pretty girl

  Washing greens in this clear stream!

  You have got a little girl in you,

  I have got a Little boy in me.

  They are of an age, well matched.

  Would you give your girl to my boy?

  424 B

  There is a Lovely girl

  Washing greens in this clear stream.

  I, too, have a son.

  They are of an age, well matched.

  Would you give her for his wife?

  (3440)

  Woman

  425

  "On the fresh green fields

  Near the wooded hill

  I am gathering herbs,

  But my basket is not full."

  Her acquaintance

  "Why not go picking with your dear

  love?"

  (3444)

  426

  If you Long for me,

  Come, come.

  I'll watch for you,

  Pruning willows at the hedge

  Till not a twig remains.

  (3455)

  427

  While you serve at court

  You will sleep upon the knees

  Of a Lady fair.

  Then remember me in the East,

  who thinks of you.

  (3457)

  428

  O my husband dear!

  When you're lost to sight

  Past the bend in the road,

  My heart is stricken,

  And I weep by the gate.

  (3458)

  429

  When I open

  The heavy gate of cypress wood

  Brought from the mountain depths,

  Come in quickly, silently,

  So we may share the bed.

  (3467)

  430

  "I am married,"

  Oft you say to me.

  But when in need,

  Who does not borrow fine garments

  From a neighbor?

  (3472)

  431

  Again tonight,

  My young lord

  Will gently take my hands,

  Roughened from pounding rice,

  And be grieved.

  (3459)

  432

  Rumors spread

  If I lie with my darling.

  But if I do not,

  Heavy is my heart

  Consumed with love.

  (3466)

  433

  Having mown the grass,

  We made a place for love

  At the foot of a hill.

  How sweet and lovely is she

  Who demurs from our pledge of Love.

  (3479)

  434

  The sash of my undergarment

  Which won't come undone by day

  Comes undone with ease at night.

  Does this mean

  My lover will come?

  (3483)

  435

  The tub is full of yarn

  You
have spun.

  Yet tomorrow you cannot wear

  Your new nice robe.

  Come and rest next to me, my dear.

  (3484)

  436

  As hemp is coiled

  Fast around the grip of a bow,

  So with both my arms,

  I will clasp my Love in bed

  Far more tightly than my rival would.

  (3486)

  437

  Fain I'd Lie with you

  Till the fresh green maple leaves

  Turn to autumn tints.

  What say you

  To that, my dear?

  (3494)

  438

  "No more shall I leave you

  Than the snow-white clouds

  Move away in the eve

  From the distant hills."

  So vowed my darling girl.

  (3513)

  439

  You're a Lofty peak

  Girt round by clouds.

  O that I could rise

  To those Lofty heights

  And be at your side.

  (3514)

  440

  Should you Lose

  The memory of my face,

  just behold the clouds

  Over the mountain

  And my image will be brought to mind.

  (3515)

  441

  Severely rebuked

  By your mother, now I go.

  But before I depart, my dear,

  Please appear, quickly, like a patch of blue

  In a cloudy sky.

  (3519)

  442

  It was but last night

  That I Lay with my sweet love.

  But it seems as distant

  As a crane

  Flying above the clouds.

  (3522)

  443

  With my heart too full to speak,

  Hurriedly I had to go,

  Leaving her,

  Like a wild bird

  On a lonely pond.

  (3527)

  444

  Departing in haste,

  As waterfowl take wing,

  How I rue the day

  That l found no time to talk

  To my dear wife before I Left.

  (3528)

  445

  Like a stag concealed

  In trees and brush,

  She remains unseen,

  And yet I never pass her gate

  But my heart thrills with joy.

  (3530)

  446

  When I touch my horse,

  Feeding him a bit of wheat

  Across a wooden stable bar,

  How l yearn after that girl,

  Whose smooth skin I have enjoyed but once.

  (3537)

  447

  'Tis as great a risk

  To approach another's wife

  As to tie a horse

  To the edge of a crumbling cliff.

  Yet as ever do l breathe,

  I'm smitten with her charms.

  I shall risk my life for her.

  (3541)

  448

  Little did I know

  That you are the River Asuka,

  With a mud-roiled stream.

  O how I rue the night

  When l gave myself to you!

  (3544)

  449

  Setting my pail aside

  At the public well

  Shadowed by green willow trees,

  Anxiously I wait for you,

  Wearing a path in the ground.

  (3546)

  450

  'Tis a delight

  To yield to you.

  But last night you came not.

  As a rice plant in the wind,

  I tossed about in bed.

  (3550)

  A literal translation of the first two lines reads:

  I would never say no

  To the pounding of rice.

  The pounding of rice in a mortar with a pestle is an obvious sexual image.

  451

  never shall I forsake my love

  And untie my sash for another,

  As breakers on the shore

  Gape wide

  And collapse in floral foam.

  (3551)

  452

  Would that I could be

  Water flowing among rocks,

  That I may flow through

  The chamber where she sleeps

  And enjoy a night with her.

  (3554)

  453

  She'll never fade from my mind,

  As a fishing boat

  Disappears over the horizon.

  Daily grows my aching love.

  (3557)

  454

  As green weed in the sea

  Waves with the tides,

  So the lithe body of my love

  Must toss about in bed

  In her anxious wait for me.

  (3562)

  455

  In the eulalia fields

  The moon now sinks behind the hills.

  The night has worn away.

  She has not come yet.

  Gone is the chance for a night of Love.

  (3565)

  Frontier guard

  456

  Leaving you at home,

  I shall miss you constantly.

  O that you were the grip

  Of my bow, so I could always

  Grasp you closely.

  (3567)

  His wife's reply

  457

  While I stay here

  l shall pine for you.

  Would I were the bow

  Which you hold in your hand

  When you go on morning hunts!

  (3568)

  The following three poems (Nos. 458 to 460) were composed by frontier guards.

  458

  When l left at morn

  For the frontier as a guard,

  My young darling wife

  Cried her heart out

  And would not let go of my hands.

  (3569)

  459

  On a dusky eve

  When cold mist hangs

  O'er swamp reeds,

  And wild geese cry in the sky,

  I shall yearn for you.

  (3570)

  460

  Again and again turning my eyes

  Toward the village

  Where I left my wife,

  Till it was lost to sight,

  l have come all this weary way.

  (3571)

  Footnotes

  On their wedding night, a man chides his beautiful young bride.

  This is considered one of the loveliest poems of the Man'yōshū, portraying a maiden's magnetic beauty.