friend hail
if mine own ancient comrade
I may not call thee,
O Tree of Takasago!
with whom sweet converse
to hold of long past years
beneath the snows
of many a winter white hid—
for wont I have been
or night or morn, or sleeping
on my rude pallet,4
like hoary crane’s nest whiten’d
with morning moonshine,
or springtime’s rimy sparkle
like moonshine gleaming,
or waking with the daybreak,
in the murmurous music
the winds make in thy leafery
to find new gladness—
so communing with my own heart
my night thoughts give me,
in utterance give me solace.
| Ancient and Dame |
What ask the winds
what ask they of the Pine-tree?
the falling leaves
blown by the shore winds down
upon our garments5
they give the answer, give they,6
the leaves low-fallen
we sweep and heap
beneath the Pine-tree’s shadow;
’tis Takasago
’tis the Tree of yore Onöe’s7
doth bide forever
the waves of Time affronting—
so gather we
the leaves low fallen gather,
while ever the Pine-tree
shall ever live its life days,
and Takasago
its fame preserve forever,
its fame forever!
|
| Tomonari |
Ah, I looked to meet some village-folk here, and now come forth an Ancient and his Dame. Good people, I would ask a thing of you. |
| Ancient |
Is it to me you speak, Sir, what would you know? |
| Tomonari |
Tell me, which among these trees I see is the Pine of Takasago? |
| Ancient |
The Tree it is, Sir, under whose shadow we sweep and heap the fallen leaves. |
| Tomonari |
The Pine of Takasago and the Pine of Suminoye, aioi no matsu, the Wedded Pines, the poets name them, the Pines that grow old together; yet wide apart lie the strands of Suminoye and Takasago, how, then, may these Trees be called the Wedded Pines! |
| Ancient |
’Tis so, Sir, as you are pleased to say. In the foreword of Songs, Old and New is it not written that the story of the Trees of Takasago and Suminoye witnesseth of spousal love? I, this Ancient, am of Sumiyoshi in the land of Tsu, this Dame is native-born, read you us the riddle, if you may, Sir. |
| Tomonari |
A miracle ’tis, good sooth! a wedded pair I behold you dwelling here together, yet hill and sea and moorland wide lie between Suminoye and Takasago; I cannot read the riddle. |
| Dame |
Not well considered, Sir, would I say your words are, for though thousands of leagues of land and water part them, yet between wedded folk whose thoughts and feelings ay commingle never long is affection’s path. |
| Ancient |
Yet again bethink you, Sir— |
| Ancient and Dame |
Things unquick are the Trees of Takasago and Sumiyoshi, yet men well call them the Wedded Pines. But we who speak have sense and feeling, to this year for many a year hath the Ancient of Sumiyoshi and the Dame of Takasago known spousal union, years many as the Tree hath endured time have they been a Wedded Pair, aioi no fûfu, who grow old together! |
| Tomonari |
Ah! fair are your words and pleasant; but tell me, tell me, bides there not in these parts some memory of the ancient story of the Wedded Pines which grow old together! |
| Ancient |
The sages of old time have told us that the Wedded Trees were sign and presage of a happy age. |
| Dame |
The story of Takasago is as old as the Garner of Ancient Verse8 that goeth back to the elder time. |
| Ancient |
And Sumiyoshi9 betokeneth the joy of living in this happy Yengi10 age. |
| Dame |
The Pine-tree telleth us of the countless leaves of speech— |
| Ancient |
Now, as of yore, the tree flourisheth, ever green— |
| Ancient and Dame |
And ever doth its unceasing greenery adorn the age— |
| Tomonari |
Now do I understand and thank you well, good folk; of doubt my mind is clear as a cloudless sky in Spring.11 |
| Ancient |
How soft yon light that falleth on the western sea! |
| Tomonari |
There lieth Suminoye— |
| Ancient |
On Takasago’s shore we stand. |
| Tomonari |
The Pines their greenery blend— |
| Ancient |
O time of Spring! |
| Tomonari |
How balmy ’tis! |
| Chorus12 |
In waveless peace
the four seas lap our shores,
the gentle tide winds
no murmur mid the woods wake,
Oh, fair the age is!
fair yonder Pine-trees’ spousal,
äiöino
äiöinomatsu,
whose happy augury
men note with awe and wonder,
while vainly seek they
meet words their thanks to utter,
in such an age
that they do live rejoicing
in their Lord’s abundant bounty.
|
| Tomonari |
Ah tell me, tell me all the happy story of the Pine of Takasago! |
| Chorus |
Well! no souls have trees and herbs, men say, yet never miss they their appointed times of flower and fruit, they love the warm light of Spring, and first those flowers blow whose buds look to the midday— |
| Ancient |
Yea! and this Pine-tree ever flourisheth, showing bloom and leaf, all heedless of change of season. |
| Chorus |
Aye! through Spring and Summer and Autumn and Winter, under deepest snow, and for a thousand years it bideth green, yea for ten flower-cycles of a thousand years its hue endureth.13 |
| Ancient |
Such virtue hath the Pine-tree. |
| Chorus |
The pearly dewdrops that hang on its leaves—leaves of speech belike—do cleanse the heart of man. |
| Ancient |
All living things that live— |
| Chorus |
Under the protecting shadow of our wide-isled14 land do they not flourish?
A member of the chorus here recites the kuse15 or precept of the piece. Aye! and as Chônô16 hath it, all things, or quick or unquick, are revealed in song; herbs and trees and soil and sand, the whispers of the wind, the babble of the brooks—all contain the soul of poetry. The sway of the woods in Spring under the eastern breezes, the chirrup of the cicada among the dews that moisten the unsunn’d foliages in Autumn, are they not forms or models of our native verse? In the universe of things that grow, doth not the Pine-tree surpass all the world of trees; bright as a
|
