Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/99

Rh he boldly denies their existence, giving emphasis by the contrast to the declaration of his own unchanging love. His subsequent adventures, it must be confessed, do not speak highly for his constancy.

After several other unfortunate love affairs, the hero found his life in Kiōto intolerable, and set out on an expedition to the east of Japan. His journey gives occasion for the introduction of a number of stanzas descriptive of the remarkable sights on the way, such as the smoking summit of Mount Asama, and the snow on Fujiyama in the height of summer. He and his people crossed the river Sumida, where Tōkio now stands, in a ferry-boat at nightfall. The dismal scene made them all feel as if they had come to the end of the world, and their thoughts went back with longing to their homes in Kiōto. There were some birds on the river known to us as "oyster-catchers," but to the Japanese by the more poetical name of Miyakodori, or "birds of the capital." Narihira exclaims—

On hearing this, every one in the boat was moved to tears. But Narihira is not always so sentimental. Some of his adventures are intended to be more or less comical.

We soon after find him in one of the northern provinces, where a rustic beauty, eager to make the acquaintance of a fashionable young gentleman from Kiōto, sends him a poem (of course in thirty-one syllables) of invitation. He condescends to visit her, but