Anthology of Japanese Literature/Ryōjin Hishō
RYŌJIN HISHŌ
During the middle and late Heian Period a new verse form came to be widely used, especially in connection with popular religious movements. This was the imayō or “modern-style,” which generally consisted of four lines, each containg 7, 5 syllables. Most of the poems in the “Ryōjin Hishō” are in this form, although there are many variations. The “Ryōjin Hishō” is an anthology, originally in twenty books, of which only a small part still survives. It was compiled over a period of many years by the Emperor Goshirakawa (1127-1192), being finally completed in 1179. The surviving poems are of three binds: Buddhist hymns, songs about Shinto shrines and festivals, and folk songs. The folk songs are by far the most interesting; the following translations are all of this type.
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May he that bade me trust him, but did not come,
Turn into a demon with three horns on his head,
That all men fly from him!
May he become a bird of the waterfields
Where frost, snow, and hail fall,
That his feet may be frozen to ice!
Oh, may he become a weed afloat on the pond!
May he tremble as he walks with the trembling of the hare, with the trembling of the doe!
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When I look at my lovely lady,
“Oh that I might become a clinging vine,” I yearn,
“That from toe to tip I might be twined about her.”
Then though they should cut, though they should carve—
Inseparable our lots!
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Things that bend in the wind—
The tall branches of pine-tree tops,
Or the little twigs of bamboos,
Boats that run with spread sails on the sea,
Floating clouds in the sky,
And in the fields the flowering susuki.
· ·
For sport and play
I think that we are born.
For when I hear
The voice of children at their play,
My limbs, even my
Stiff limbs, are stirred.
· ·
Dance, dance, Mr. Snail!
If you won’t I shall leave you
For the little horse,
For the little ox
To tread under his hoof,
To trample to bits.
But if quite prettily
You dance your dance,
To a garden of flowers
I will carry you to play.
Oh gods almighty!
If gods indeed you are,
Take pity on me;
For even the gods were once
Such men as we.