Lament on the Instability of Human Life
Life is such in this world
That our struggles are all in vain:
Years rise on months
And time flows ever onward,
Flooding us away
A hundred trivial concerns
Oppress us in succession
And stifle us under their weight.
So women bent with age
Once rejoiced in being young --
Carefree girls binding,
As girls are ever known to do,
Binding foreign jewels
About their gaily draped arms --
Waving white linen sleeves,
Trailing the hems of scarlet skirts
As hand and hand they went,
Spending their time in happy play,
And all were girls together.
But time has the power of seasons,
And irresistibly
Summer has given way to winter;
And at an unremembered hour
Those glistening tresses, black
As the mud-snails innards,
Were whitened by a silent frost;
As from a time obscure
Those cheeks that glowed so bright,
Those scarlet cheeks,
Were wrinkled -- scratched by time.
So the bold young men
Rejoiced to prove their manliness:
Like warriors girded their hips
With their straight or curving swords,
Clutched tightly in their hands
Their deadly, beast destroying bows,
Threw upon their roans
Saddles of woven workmanship,
Climbed upon their mounts,
And eagerly galloped away to the hunt.
But is the way of the world
Such that these moments can long endure?
For a night of love
The eager girls quietly push open
Their wooden doors,
And their lovers grope, then clasp
The hands they sought,
And sleep, beloved arms entwined.
But such nights are few,
And soon the lover goes with age's hand staff
Carried by his side,
And then goes stumbling onward,
Scorned by the passerby;
He must go stumbling endlessly,
Despised by the passing crowds.
For such is the common course of life ,
That age should bring
Just this much and nothing more --
That we cling to life
As long as our souls endure it,
And our efforts are in vain.
Envoy
How I long to be
Unalterably what once I was,
Immovable as a rock,
But because I belong to this world,
There is no stop to time.
Yaminoe Okura (?660-?733)
tr. & copyright Earl Minor
An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry
Stanford University Press, Stanford, Cal. 1968
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