Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/443
I watch the clouds hurrying north.
Dragons of the sea-rain howl as,
Trembling in dark fear,
I beat out the bars of this long dirge.
Rai Sanyō
No title
[An attack on the Shogunate]
You, whose ancestors in the mighty days
Roared at the skies and swept across the earth,
Stand now helpless to drive off wrangling foreigners—
How empty your title, “Queller of Barbarians”!
Yanagawa Seigan (1789–1858)
A song of history: Peter the Great
He pushed back the eastern borders three thousand miles,
Learned the Dutch science and taught it to his people.
Idly we sit talking of our long dead heroes—
In a hundred years have we bred such a man?
Sakuma Shōzan (1811–1864)
On hearing that the port of Shimoda has been opened to the foreigners
For seven miles by the river hills the dogs and sheep forage.[1]
The hues of spring visit the wastes of quake-ridden earth.
Only the cherry blossoms take not on the rank barbarian stench,
But breathe to the morning sun the fragrance of a nation’s soul.
Gesshō (1817–1858)
- ↑ To many Japanese of this period the meat-eating Westerners were no more than reeking animals. The author was a Buddhist priest.