Page:Kwaidan; Stories and Studies of Strange Things - Hearn - 1904.djvu/218

⁠Nami no hana ni
Tomari kanétaru,
⁠Kochō kana!

[Having found it difficult indeed to perch upon the (foam-) blossoms of the waves,—alas for the butterfly!]

⁠Mutsumashi ya!—
Umaré-kawaraba
⁠Nobé no chō.^[1]

[If (in our next existence) we be born into the state of butterflies upon the moor, then perchance we may be happy together!]

⁠Nadéshiko ni
Chōchō shiroshi—
⁠Taré no kon?^[2]

[On the pink-flower there is a white butterfly: whose spirit, I wonder?]

⁠Ichi-nichi no
Tsuma to miëkéri—
⁠Chō futatsu.

[The one-day wife has at last appeared—a pair of butterflies!]

1. Or perhaps the verses might be more effectively rendered thus: "Happy together, do you say? Yes—if we should be reborn as field-butterflies in some future life: then we might accord!" This poem was composed by the celebrated poet Issa, on the occasion of divorcing his wife.
2. Or, Taré no tama?

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