Page:Japanese plays and playfellows (1901).djvu/169

Rh

Here the similes are plain and forcible. The next poem is less lucid:

Literally: "Riding in no vehicle (which is used for a short journey), the train whithersoever going (for an indefinite distance), By doing what shall this body of mine, Terminus?" That is: My love is not a short-lived fancy, but a lifelong passion, until I reach the terminus of death. Graceful, indeed, but scarcely gracious is a lady's reply to an admirer who had sent her his photograph:

The double meaning of a "faithful" likeness and a "faithful" lover can, for once, be preserved in English. A pun on the word tokeru, which means "to melt" and "to be undone," is allied with a dainty antithesis in