"Before the wind of spring
Has tangled the fine threads
Of the green willow—
Now, I would show it
To my love."
"The time of the cherry blossoms
Is not yet past—
Yet now they ought to fall
Whilst the love of those who look on them
Is at its height."
"Fall gently
O thou rain of spring!
And scatter not
The cherry flowers
Until I have seen them."
"When I went out
Over the moor,
Where the haze was rising,
The nightingale sang;
Spring, it seems, has come."
"My days pass in longing,
And my heart melts
Like the hoar-frost
On the water-plants
When spring has come."
"In yearning love
I have endured till night.
But to-morrow's long spring day
With its rising mists,
How shall I ever pass it?"
It is not without some resemblance to the English bird, being of the same size, and of a plain greyish colour. Its habits are not specially nocturnal, but when singing it seeks the deepest shade of a bush or thicket, a condition which the Japanese simulate by covering its cage with paper so as to produce an artificial gloom. The repertory of the Uguisu is by no means so varied as that of the nightingale, but for liquid melody of note it is unsurpassed by any songster whatever. Its brief melodious utterances are no inapt emblem of the national poetry.
