There!—oh, what shall we do?... Pledged for a double existence,—
And now, as we sit together, the string of the samisen snaps![7]
[7] Among singing-girls it is believed that the snapping of a samisen-string under such circumstances as those indicated in the above song is an omen of coming separation.
He woos by teaching the Law of Cause and Effect for three lives,
And makes a contract for two—the crafty-smiling priest![8]
[8] This song is of a priest who breaks the vow of celibacy.
Every mortal has lived and is destined to live countless lives; yet the happy moments of any single existence are not therefore less precious in themselves:—
Not to have met one night is verily cause for sorrow;
Since twice in a single birth the same night never comes.
But even as a summer unusually warm is apt to herald a winter of exceptional severity, so too much happiness in this life may signify great suffering in the next:—
Always I suffer thus!... Methinks, in my last existence.
Too happy I must have been,—did not suffer enough.
Next in point of exotic interest to the songs expressing belief in preëxistence and rebirth, I think I should place those treating of the doctrine of ingwa, or Karma. I offer some free translations from these, together with one selection from a class of compositions more elaborate and usually much longer than the dodoitsu, called hauta. In the original, at least, my selection from the hauta—which contains a charming simile about the firefly—is by far the prettiest:—
Weep not!—turn to me!... Nay, all my suspicions vanish!
Forgive me those words unkind: some ingwa controlled my tongue!