VI. YUKI-ONNA

The Snow-Woman, or Snow-Spectre, assumes various forms; but in most of the old folk-tales she appears as a beautiful phantom, whose embrace is death. (A very curious story about her can be found in my "Kwaidan.")

Yuki-Onna—

Yosō kushi mo

Atsu kōri;

Sasu-kōgai ya

Kōri naruran.

[As for the Snow-Woman,—even her best comb, if I mistake not, is made of thick ice; and her hair-pin [³⁶], too, is probably made of ice.]

Honrai wa

Kū naru mono ka,

Yuki-Onna?

Yoku-yoku mireba

Ichi-butsu mo nashi!

[Was she, then, a delusion from the very first, that Snow-Woman,—a thing that vanishes into empty space? When I look carefully all about me, not one trace of her is to be seen!]

Yo-akéréba

Kiété yuku é wa

Shirayuki [³⁷] no

Onna to mishi mo

Yanagi nari-keri!

[Having vanished at daybreak (that Snow-Woman), none could say whither she had gone. But what had seemed to be a snow-white woman became indeed a willow-tree!]

Yuki-Onna

Mité wa yasathiku,

Matsu wo ori

Nama-daké hishigu

Chikara ari-keri!

[Though the Snow-Woman appears to sight slender and gentle, yet, to snap the pine-trees asunder and to crush the live bamboos, she must have had strength.]

Samukésa ni

Zotto [³⁸] wa surédo

Yuki-Onna,—

Yuki oré no naki

Yanagi-goshi ka mo!

[Though the Snow-Woman makes one shiver by her coldness,—ah, the willowy grace of her form cannot be broken by the snow (i.e. charms us in spite of the cold).]