Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/440

  

Longing to attack the southern barbarians

[Directed against the Spanish and Portuguese soldiers and missionaries, who had arrived in Japan from the south.]

False religions delude the land with a ceaseless clamor. I would strike the barbarian tribes, but the time comes not. When will the great roc rise and southward soar? Long have I waited the wind of his ten-thousand-mile wings.

The rainy season

How many days of spring rain since I have seen the sun? Yet I delight in the new pools that shine before my porch. Last year the burning drought continued through the fall. Even in river towns I heard the water-seller’s cry.

Dutch ships (1818)

In Nagasaki Bay, where sky and sea meet to the west, At heaven’s edge a little dot appears. The cannon of the lookout tower sounds once; In twenty-five watch stations, bows are bared. Through the streets on all sides the cry breaks forth: “The redhaired Westerners are coming!”