Chapter II

The nature of the bond[56] is transient,
The bond is transient in this world, and yet
Parent and child are destined not to live
In loving union even this short while.
But, like the four birds in the fable old,[57]
Between them cruel separation lies.
And now, alas! the mother’s loving search
Of her young child has come to its sad end,
For she has reached the river Sumida,[58]
The river Sumida that flows between
The province Shimotsuke and Musashi.

THE MOTHER [_Words_]

Pray, O Boatman, kindly let me also enter in your ferry.

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

Who, then, art thou? Whither going? And from whence hast thou
just come?

THE MOTHER [_Words_]

From the capital I travel, to Azuma, seeking some one.

FERRYMAN [_Words, in jest_]

As thou art, then, from the city, and seem also to be mad,
Entertain us, show us something that is curious or funny.
If thou do’st not, I’ll not let thee travel now upon this boat.

THE MOTHER [_Words_]

Oh, how vexing! I expected on the ferry of Sumida,
Which is so renowned, the answer--“Enter now upon my boat,
For the day is not yet over.” But instead of that thou sayest--

[_Song_]

Thou deign’st to say that I am from the city,
And by the custom, must not use thy boat.[59]
But o’er great Sumida thy ferry passes,
And so thy words do scarce become thee well.

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

It is true; thou art a person from the distant City Royal,
And thy gentle nurture tallies with its reputation here.

THE MOTHER [_Words_]

Ah! That word![60] I do remember. It was here that Narihira
That the famous Narihira[61] wrote beside this very ferry:

[_Song_]

Bird of the Royal City--come!
I ask of you a boon, if true,
The name that they have given you:
Is she alive--the one I love--
Is she? Or is she not?

Pray, O Boatman, over yonder is a white bird that we know not
In the capital. By what name do you call it in this part?

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

That bird is indeed a seagull, flying in from the wide ocean.

THE MOTHER [_Words_]

They may call it gull or plover, what they wish to by the sea,
But when standing here by Sumida with that white bird before us
Why did you not name it rightly, as the Bird of City Royal?

FERRYMAN [_Song_][62]

Yes, truly, truly, I have sadly erred.
This is the place far famed for that same bird.
I had in very truth the thing forgot
And though this is the place the thought came not.

THE MOTHER [_Song_]

The gull of the wide sea brings to thought
The waves of the evening tide.[63]

FERRYMAN [_Song_]

And the roll of the waves to our minds has brought
The past when Narihira cried.

THE MOTHER [_Song_]

“Is she or is she not?” To the Bird he spied.

FERRYMAN [_Song_]

His thought was a lover parted from his side.

THE MOTHER [_Song_]

The same thought guides me, for I seek
My loving child. To all I speak,
Asking if any news there be
Of where my child lies hid from me.

FERRYMAN [_Song_]

For a lover to pine

THE MOTHER

For a child to seek

FERRYMAN

Is in the same way

THE MOTHER

When love does speak.

CHORUS [_Song_]

O Bird of the Royal City, come!
For I ask, too, a boon of you.
In Azuma, the child I love
Is he, or is he not?
Ah! though I ask and ask, it answers not!
Vexing art thou! Bird of the Royal City--
A country bird wouldst thou be better called!
Yet this same bird comes singing to the banks
Of Horie River, where the boats race past.
That river is in Naniwa, and this
The Sumida, flows down through Azuma.
When one reflects on this, how vastly far
In my lone journey do I seem to come.
That being so---- Lo! Ferryman, I pray
The boat is full, but still is room for me,
So let me enter, Ferryman, I say,
So let me enter, and then push away.

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

Such a tender-hearted, mad thing as this woman never has been!
Come aboard at once, but notice that the ferry is a swift one.
Take good care to step in gently.
[_To the TRAVELLER_] You, sir, too, I pray come on.

TRAVELLER [_Words_]

May I ask, what is that yonder where the people by the willow
Are assembled in great numbers? Why should they be waiting there?

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

Well, that is a public meeting for a universal prayer.
I would tell you, while we’re crossing, if you’ll listen to the tale,
The sad story in connection with this festival of ours.
It was last year, in the third month, on the fifteenth day, I reckon,
Yes! That is so, and to-day we have the very selfsame day,
That a kidnapper did journey from the capital, and with him
Was a lad whom he had purchased, twelve or thirteen years of age,
He was going to the north-east, but the child was not yet hardened
And the long fatiguing journey made him very sadly ill.
It was just here by the river that he could go no step farther,
But fell down, and there remained. Oh! a heartless man was with him!
And the child in that condition by the roadside simply lying
Was abandoned by the merchant who went off to the north-east.
Then the people of the district nursed and tenderly did treat him
(Though I fancy it was really just the Karma of his past),[64]
Something in his childish features and his little ways they noted,
As if he were of importance, so they watched him carefully.
Worse and worse, however, fared he, till the end seemed just
approaching,
Then they asked him--“Who now art thou? and from whence hast thou
just come?”
And his father’s surname asked I, and the province of his birthplace:
“In the capital my home is, and at Kitajirikawa.”
So he answered; “And my father, who is dead, was Yoshida.
I, his one child, had been living with my loving mother only,
But was kidnapped, and was taken far away, and hence my illness.
Truly, often am I thinking of the people in the city,
Of their hands and feet and shadows,[65] even, often fondly thinking.
As beside the road I’m dying, deign just here to bury me.
And to mark the spot I pray thee, be so kind, and plant a willow.”
Feebly spoke he, and repeated four or five times a calm prayer,
Then it ended. A sad story, is it not, that I have told you?
As I see now, in this boat, there are some people from the city,
Unintentioned though it may be, you will honourably join us
And your lamentation offer with our prayers on this occasion?
What! The shore! With this long story we have quickly come to land.
For _you_ it is unimportant. Now, I pray you, disembark.

TRAVELLER [_Words_]

Truly, here to-day I’ll linger, and a prayer with you will say.

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

How now! Why does that mad woman not come here from out the boat?
Come, at once! Come up, I beg you! Yet how tender-hearted is she!
Having simply heard the story she is truly shedding tears.
Yet at once, I really beg you, you must come out of the boat.

THE MOTHER [_Words_]

Pray, O Boatman, of that story, what, I beg you, is the date?

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

’Twas last year, and in the third month; and, moreover, this same day.

THE MOTHER [_Words_]

And that child, what age?

FERRYMAN

Twelve years.

THE MOTHER

Ah!--his name?

FERRYMAN

Umewakamaru was he.

THE MOTHER

And his father’s surname know you?

FERRYMAN

’Twas a certain Yoshida.

THE MOTHER

And since then, the parents, have they never sent to make inquiries?

FERRYMAN

No, no relatives inquiring ever came.

THE MOTHER

But sure the mother!

FERRYMAN

It is strange beyond believing, but ’tis true--I answer No!

THE MOTHER [_Song_]

Alas! Nor kith nor kin. It is too true!
His parents even did not come to you.
It must be. Yet, O Heavens, how sad! _That_ child
Is him I seek. I, whom you now called wild.
O Heavens. O mercy. It must be a dream!

FERRYMAN [_Words_]

Oh, unutterable sorrow. Until now it lay outside me;
It was other people’s business. Now you say it was _thy_ child?
Pitiful! But wherefore grievest? He is now beyond recall.
Come this way and I will show thee where his grave lies. Now
’tis near.
_This_ the tomb of him who left us. Offer now thy deep-felt prayers.

THE MOTHER [_Song_]

E’en though I feared it might be so, till now
Hope led me on to make this journey long
To distant, unfamiliar Azuma;
But at the end of the sad way I find
Naught in this world but mark of where he lies.
Ah! Cruel is it!--If his fate was death--
That he should leave his birthplace and have come
To a road corner in strange Azuma,
And mingled with the roadside earth to lie
Beneath a tangled mass of spring-time’s weeds,
Beneath this very ground so it doth seem.

CHORUS