English

Columbus

Strange things I see, bright mirror, in thy breast: —
There Perseverance stands, and nobly scorns
The gabbling tongue of busy calumny;
Proud Erudition in a scholar's garb
Derides my plans and grins a jeering smile.
Hypocrisy, clad in a doctor's gown,
A western continent deems heresy:
The princes, kings, and nobles of the land
Smile at my projects, and report me mad:
One royal woman only stands my friend,
Bright Isabell, the lady of our hearts,
Whom avarice prompts to aid my purposes,

Inchantress

Who dares attempt this gloomy grove
Where never shepherd dream'd of love,
And birds of night are only found,
And poisonous weeds bestrew the ground:
Hence, stranger, take some other road,
Nor dare prophane my dark abode;
The winds are high, the moon is low —
Would you enter? — no, no, no: —

Columbus

Sorceress of mighty power!
Hither at the midnight hour
Over hill and dale I've come,
Leaving ease and sleep at home:
With daring aims my bosom glows;
Long a stranger to repose,

As o'er his charts Columbus ran,
Such disproportion he survey'd,
He thought he saw in art's mean plan
Blunders that Nature never made;
The land in one poor corner placed,
And all beside, a swelling waste! —
" It can't be so, " Columbus said;

" This world on paper idly drawn,
" O'er one small tract so often gone
" The pencil tires; in this void space
" Allow'd to find no resting place.

" But copying Nature's bold design,
" If true to her, no fault is mine;

The palace of Hishiro
at Makimuku
is a palace where shines
the morning sun,
is a palace where is brilliant
the evening sun,
is a palace where the roots
of the bamboo are plentiful and abundant,
is a palace where the roots
of the trees are long and extended,
is a palace built
pounding much foundation soil.

By the palace of wood
of flourishing hi trees,
the Hall of New Grain,
there is growing
a luxuriant
tsuki tree:
its upper branches
spread out covering the heavens;

The god
Yachihoko,
unable to find a wife
in the land of the eight islands,
hearing that
in the faraway
land of Koshi
there was a wise maiden,
hearing that
there was a fair maiden,
set out
to woo her,
went out
to win her.

Not even untying
the cord of my sword,
not even untying
my cloak,
I stood there
and pushed and shook,
I stood there
and pulled and shoved
on the wooden door
where the maiden slept.

Then, on the verdant mountains,

The vines of the tokoro
crawl around
among the rice stems,
the rice stems in the rice paddies
bordering on the tomb.

To turn your thoughts
from matters of no importance,
it is best
to drink a single cup
of cloudy unfiltered sake.

SONG OF THE GLEE-MAIDEN

Yes, thou mayst sigh,
And look once more at all around,
At stream and bank, and sky and ground;
Thy life its final course has found,
And thou must die.

Yes, lay thee down,
And while thy struggling pulses flutter,
Bid the grey monk his soul-mass mutter
And the deep bell its death-tone utter:
Thy life is gone.

Be not afraid,

DEATH CHANT

Viewless Essence, thin and bare,
Well-nigh melted into air;
Still with fondness hovering near
The earthly form thou once didst wear;

Pause upon thy pinion's flight,
Be thy course to left or right;
Be thou doomed to soar or sink,
Pause upon the awful brink.

To avenge the deed expelling
Thee untimely from thy dwelling,
Mystic force thou shalt retain
O'er the blood and o'er the brain.

When the form thou shalt espy
That darkened on thy closing eye;

THE LAY OF POOR LOUISE

Ah, poor Louise! the livelong day
She roams from cot to castle gay;
And still her voice and viol say,
Ah, maids, beware the woodland way,
Think on Louise.

Ah, poor Louise! The sun was high,
It smirched her cheek, it dimmed her eye,
The woodland walk was cool and nigh,
Where birds with chiming streamlets vie
To cheer Louise.

Ah, poor Louise! The savage bear