Chō wa mina
Jiu-shichi-hachi no
Sugata kana!
[As for butterflies, they all have the appearance of being about seventeen or eighteen years old.[[9]]]
Chō tobu ya—
Kono yo no urami
Naki yō ni!
[How the butterfly sports,—just as if there were no enmity (or “envy”) in this world!]
Chō tobu ya,
Kono yo ni nozomi
Nai yō ni!
[Ah, the butterfly!—it sports about as if it had nothing more to desire in this present state of existence.]
Nami no hana ni
Tomari kanétaru,
Kochō kana!
[Having found it difficult indeed to perch upon the (foam-) blossoms of the waves,—alas for the butterfly!]
Mutsumashi ya!—
Umaré-kawareba
Nobé no chō.[[10]]
[If (in our next existence) we be born into the state of butterflies upon the moor, then perchance we may be happy together!]