Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/409

Rh  Let’s think the Bridge of Umeda
 * The bridge the magpies built and make a vow
 * That we will always be Wife and Husband Stars.

“With all my heart,” she says and clings to him:
 * So many are the tears that fall between the two,
 * The waters of the river must have risen.
 * On a teahouse balcony across the way
 * A party in the lamplight loudly discuss
 * Before they go to bed the latest gossip,
 * With many words about the good and bad
 * Of this year’s crop of lovers’ suicides.

How strange! but yesterday, even today,
 * We spoke as if such things didn’t concern us.
 * Tomorrow we shall figure in their gossip—
 * Well, if they wish to sing about us, let them.

This is the song that now we hear:
 * “Why can’t you take me for your wife?
 * Although you think you don’t want me …”
 * However we think, however lament,
 * Both our fate and the world go against us.
 * Never before today was there a day
 * Of relaxation, and untroubled night,
 * Instead, the tortures of an ill-starred love.
 * “What did I do to deserve it?
 * I never can forget you.
 * You want to shake me off and go?
 * I’ll never let you.
 * Take me with your hands and kill me
 * Or I’ll never let you go,”
 * Said the girl in tears.

Of all the many songs, that it should be that one,
 * This very evening, but who is it that sings?
 * We are those who listen; others like us
 * Who’ve gone this way have had the same ordeal.

They cling to one another, weeping bitterly,