Owarété mo,
Isoganu furi no
Chōcho kana!
[Ah, the butterfly! Even when chased, it never has the air of being in a hurry.]
Chō wa mina
Jiu-shichi-hachi no
Sugata kana!
[As for butterflies, they all have the appearance of being about seventeen or eighteen years old.[1]]
Chō tobu ya—
Kono yo no urami
Naki yō ni!
[How the butterfly sports,—just as if there were no enmity (or "envy") in this world!]
Chō tobu ya,
Kono yo ni nozomi
Nai yō ni!
[Ah, the butterfly!—it sports about as if it had nothing more to desire in this present state of existence.]
- ↑ That is to say, the grace of their motion makes one think of the grace of young girls, daintily costumed, in robes with long fluttering sleeves. … An old Japanese proverb declares that even a devil is pretty at eighteen: Oni mo jiukachi azami no hana: "Even a devil at eighteen, flower-of-the-thistle."
191
