Anthology of Japanese Literature (Omnibus) by Donald Keene

Author:Donald Keene [Keene, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

MODERN POETRY IN CHINESE

Many writers of the early Meiji period continued the scholarly tradition of writing poetry and prose in Chinese. The growth of interest in the West tended increasingly to lessen the popularity of classical Chinese studies, but it was Natsume Sōseki, a scholar of English literature, who wrote the most distinguished poetry in Chinese of any Japanese of recent times.

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Niagara Falls

The startled traveler wakes to the thunder by his pillow,

Rises and climbs among old trees to the roaring brink.

In the deep night, white all heaven and earth;

The moon comes, parting the curtain of a million misty pearls.

Narushima Ryūhoku (1837-1884)

In the Army

To fret at the time, to bewail the age—how pointless!

More sense in howling at the moon or fashioning rhymes on flowers.

Should anyone come to camp and ask for me today,

Say that the General went to bed drunk and has not yet wakened.

Fujita Koshirō (1842-1865)

Song of Victory: The Battle of Port Arthur

With the King’s million I struck the proud foe;

From the plains drove upon the fort until the dead were piled in hills.

With this shame must I now face their fathers:

To our song of victory today, how many men return?

General Nogi Maresuke (1849-1912)

Self-derision

With hateful eyes I wait withdrawal from the world,

Lazy, with this doltish ignorance, to try its fame.

Turning my back upon the days, I slander my contemporaries;

I read old books to curse the ancients.

With the talent of a donkey, a lagging roan,

Head vacuous as the autumn locust’s shell,

Abounding only in passion for the mists,

I shall rate rivers, from my rude hut classify the hills.

Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916)

TRANSLATED BY BURTON WATSON

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