"Talk of jewels
Which shine by night!
Can they give so much pleasure
As drinking saké
To drive away one's care?"
"Many are the ways
Of this world's pleasures;
But none to my mind
Is like that of getting mellow,
Even to tears."
"So long as in this world
I have my pleasure,
In the future existence
What care I though I become
An insect or a bird?"
Spring is a more favourite subject. The following are by various authors:—
"On the plum blossoms
Thick fell the snow;
I wished to gather some
To show to thee,
But it melted in my hands."
"The plum blossoms
Had already been scattered,
But notwithstanding
The white snow
Has fallen deep in the garden."
"Among the hills
The snow still lies—
But the willows
Where the torrents rush together
Are in full bud."
"O thou willow
That I see every morn,
Hasten to become a thick grove
Whereto the nightingale[1]
May resort and sing."
- ↑ The bird which it is necessary in an English translation to call the nightingale is not our songster, but an allied species, the Uguisu or Cettia cantans.
