Oh, in that case let us tarry till the mad thing can o’ertake us,
We can stay the boat a little, for this way she’ll surely come.
THE MOTHER [Song][52]
Darkness entire can never hold its sway
Within a mother’s heart, and yet for love
Of her sweet child she is a wanderer.
Ah! painfully I know for the first time
The bitter truth contained within these words.
I ask all those who pass
Along the snowy way[53]
To Azuma to say
Where lies my little love.
There is no news. Alas!
No answer can I find.
Shall I then ask the wind
That blows unseen above?
CHORUS
If one but waits
The wind vibrates
The branches of the pine trees till they speak.
If one stays still
He often will
Have brought to him the tidings he does seek.[54]
THE MOTHER [Song]
Fleeting as are the gleaming drops of dew,
Desolate as the moor of Makuzu
In autumn, is this world of lost delight.
CHORUS
Fretted with sorrow pass her day and night.
THE MOTHER [Song]