And what are “uta”?
FISHERMAN.
You in China make your poems and odes out of the Scriptures of India; and we have made our “uta” out of the poems and odes of China. Since then our poetry is a blend of three lands, we have named it Yamato, the great Blend, and all our songs “Yamato Uta.” But I think you question me only to mock an old man’s simplicity.
HAKU.
No, truly; that was not my purpose. But come, I will sing a Chinese poem about the scene before us.
“Green moss donned like a cloak
Lies on the shoulders of the rocks;
White clouds drawn like a belt
Surround the flanks of the mountains.”
How does that song please you?
FISHERMAN.
It is indeed a pleasant verse. In our tongue we should say the poem thus:
Koke-goromo
Kitaru iwao wa
Samonakute,
Kinu kinu yama no
Obi wo suru kana!