No More Learning

Tsuneyo — What do you say? He wants the worst-looking
samurai in the army!
Servant — Most positively; those are the orders.
Tsune yo — Then I must be the man. Go; say I'm coming.
Servant — Very well.
Tsuneyo [approaching the palace] — Verily, this is incompre-
hensible. Some enemy has accused me of treason, and this
being ordered into my lord's presence is but the prelude of hav-
ing my head taken off. Well, well, I can do nothing to help it.
I will go in at any risk; please show me the way.
Chorus — Then in an instant, suddenly ushered into the midst
of assembled soldiers ranged like blazing stars, rank on
rank of samurai of the armies, besides many other notables.
Their eyes are drawn to him, and many point the scornful
finger.
Tsuneyo — What is well sewed may yet be ripped.
Chorus — His old armor and rusty spear are not useless to him,
nor cares he for the ridiculous figure he cuts.
[He appears before Saimioji. ]
Saimioji — Ha! That is the man. [To Tsuneyo. ] Art thou
Genzaemon Tsuneyo of Sano, and hast thou forgotten the wan-
dering priest who sought shelter of thee yon snowy night?


## p. 8177 (#377) ###########################################

JAPANESE LITERATURE
8177
Thou declaredst then that should trouble arise at Kamakura thou
wouldst don thy battered armor, seize thy rusty spear, mount
thy shadowy steed, and speed thee first of all to Kamakura.
Now thou hast valiantly kept thy word; for this I admire thee.
[To the assembly. ) The object of this gathering of vassals in
]
the capital was for no other cause than to test the truth or
falsehood of Tsuneyo's words. However, if there is any per-
son here with a grievance to state, let him now plead his cause,
and judgment shall be given according to justice and law. But
first of all I give judgment in the case of Tsuneyo. His for-
mer inheritance in Sano, over thirty counties, must be forthwith
returned to him. Moreover, besides this, for that in the cold
snow-storm he willingly cut down his precious ornamental trees
to warm the stranger guest, in hope of reward in some other
world, I now in return for the ume [plum], sakura [cherry),
matsu (pine] trees, bestow upon him Ume-da in Kaga, Sakura-i
in Etchu, and Matsu-eda in Ködzuke, three portions as a per-
petual inheritance for himself and his heirs to all generations;
in testimony whereof, I now give official documents signed and
sealed.
Chorus — With gladness of heart he accepts the benefactions of
his lord.
Tsuneyo — Tsuneyo accepts the gifts.
Chorus — He accepts, and three times makes humble obeisance,
O ye who erst laughed him to scorn, look now upon him
excelling in honor. The warriors all return to their
homes, and among them Tsuneyo, his face all bright with
new-found joy. Now riding bravely on a gorgeous steed,
away he speeds to his home in Sano of Kamitsuke with
joyous heart.
XJV-512


## p. 8178 (#378) ###########################################

8178
JAPANESE LITERATURE
THE DOMINANT NOTE OF THE LAW
[This is one of the Buddhist (Wasan,' or hymns, from the latter part of
the sixteenth (? ) century, written by a priest, Kwaihan; translation by Clay
MacCauley. The translation follows the Japanese metre of the naga uła,
each line containing two series of alternating five and seven syllable measures. ]
I
N SPENDING my days chasing things that are trifles,
In sowing the seed of the sixfold migration,
I pass through the world with my life-purpose baffled.
Since gaining a birth among those that are human,
Just now I have learned that I may become godlike;
So now I seek Buddha's help, trusting the promise.
This world, after all,— it is only a dream-world;
And we, after all, are vain selves with dust mingled.
Our jealousies, angers, and scoffing reproaches,
All evils we do, though disguised by our cunning,
At last become massed like the bulk of a mountain,
And we are cast down to “The River of Three Paths ;*
A fitting reward for our self-prompted actions,
Whose ills each must bear, never blaming another.
Live I a long life,-'tis like flashing of lightning.
Live I but one life, lo! 'tis lived in a dream-world.
Grow I into one life with wife and with children,
The love of such one life abides but a moment.
Think, how to the depths has my heart been affected!
Engrossed by my bonds to a world that is fleeting,
Naught led me to pray,—“Namu Amida Buddha;” +
As wind to a horse-ear were things of the future;
Reminded of death's blast, I answered, “When comes it? »
The preacher I trusted not; thought he spoke falsely:
And so has my time sped to this very moment.
Desire I thought was for good that would follow;-
Oh! how I lament as I think of what has been.
But yet in this troubled life comes consolation:
Adorable Buddha enlightens the dark way;
Has pity on all those who live in these last days;
To all gives compassion and blessed redemption,
Whose depth or whose height passes ocean or mountain.
To Buddha's salvation so bountiful, boundless,
*A river in the underworld over which the souls of the dead must go.
Three paths there lead to the realms of “Demons,» «Brutes, and the “Hur-
gry Ones. )
+ A sacred phrase by repetition of which salvation may be gained.


## p. 8179 (#379) ###########################################

JAPANESE LITERATURE
8179
Thanksgiving forever;- to me it is given.
Up pointing towards heaven, down pointing 'neath heaven,*
The Buddha sheds light upon all who are living.
Now, knowing the Law as the Law has been given,
The blest triple treasure,— Rite, Priesthood, and Buddha,t-
I lift up my song, though I sing in a dream-world.
If sorrow and knowing are both the mind's flowering,
If demon or Buddha with each is attendant,
Then let all my faith upon knowing be centred.
Up-striving, away from «The River of Three Paths,”
A glance at the Fullness Divine of all Goodness
Will gladden my eyes,— the reward of my striving.
Recite then the Prayer; — for by its mere virtue
Your pathway will enter the Land of the Holy. ”
»
MODERN LITERATURE UNDER THE TOKUGAWA
SHOGUNATE
1600-1850 A. D.
CLOSING SCENE FROM THE "CHIUSHINGURA)
[This story, (Chiusbingura,' records the celebrated fidelity of the Forty-
seven Ronin,” the great heroes of feudal Japan, 1701–2. Translation by
F. Victor Dickins. It embodies the dearest ideals of a large part of the Jap-
anese people. In dramatic form it receives repeated rendering in Japanese
theatres. Mr. Dickins's translation follows the modified text of a famous
dramatist, Takeda Izumo, who shares with Chikamatsu a wide popularity. ]
NOTHER moment, and the body of Moronao lay on the floor,
A covered with wounds.
The conspirators crowded round it, wild with excite-
ment, shouting: -
"Oh, rare sight! Oh, happy fortune! Happy are we as the
móki when he found his waif, I fortunate as though we gazed
upon the flower of the udonge, that blossoms but once in three
thousand years. "
»
* The attitude taken by the Buddha immediately after his birth into this
world.
+ The three precious things of Buddhism — Law, Church, and Nirvana.
Some drift-wood by which this sea-tortoise (móki) saw the light it had
longed in vain to see for three thousand years.


## p. 8180 (#380) ###########################################

8180
JAPANESE LITERATURE
Cutting off their enemy's head with the dagger with which
their dead master had committed seppuku,* they resumed their
orgy, exclaiming:-
“We deserted our wives, we abandoned our children, we left
our aged folk uncared-for, all to obtain this one head. How
auspicious a day is this ! »
They struck at the head in their frenzy, gnashed at it, shed
tears over it; their grief and fury, poor wretches, beggared
description.
Yuranosuke, drawing from his bosom the ihait of his dead
master, placed it reverently on a small stand at the upper end
of the room; and then set the head of Moronao, cleansed from
blood, on another opposite to it. He next took a perfume from
within his helmet, and burnt it before the tablet of his lord,
prostrating himself and withdrawing slowly, while he bowed his
head reverently three times, and then again thrice three times.
"O thou soul of my liege lord, with awe doth thy vassal
approach thy mighty presence, who art now like unto him that
was born of the lotos-flower, 1 to attain a glory and eminence
beyond the understanding of men! Before the sacred tablet
tremblingly set I the head of thine enemy, severed from his
corpse by the sword thou deignedst to bestow upon thy servant
in the hour of thy last agony. O thou that art now resting
amid the shadows of the tall grass, look with favor on my offer-
ing. ” Bursting into tears, the Karo of Yenya thus adored the
memory of his lord.
" “And now, comrades,” he resumed after a pause, “advance
each of you, one after the other, and burn incense before the
tablet of your master. ”
“We would all,” cried Yoshida, “venture to ask our chief
first among us to render that honor to our lord's memory. ”
Nay,” answered the Karõ, «tis not I who of right should
be the first. Yazama Jiutaro, to you of right falls that honor. ”
“Not so,” cried Yazama: "I claim no such favor. Others
might think I had no right to it, and troubles might thus arise. ”
"No one will think that,” exclaimed Yuranosuke. « We have
all freely ventured our lives in the struggle to seize Moronao,
»
>
* Suicide by hara kiri, or cutting open the abdomen.
+ Tablet holding the posthumous name of the dead, and date of death.
| Buddha.


## p. 8181 (#381) ###########################################

JAPANESE LITERATURE
8181
>>
(C
but to you,- to you fell the glory of finding him, and it was you
who dragged him here alive, into our presence. 'Twas a good
deed, Yazama, acceptable to the spirit of our master; each of us
would fain have been the doer of it. Comrades, say I not well ? »
Yoshida assented on behalf of the rest.
“Delay not, Yazama,” resumed Yuranosuke; “for time flies
fast. »
If it must be so," cried Yazama, as he passed forward, utter-
ing gomen* in a low tone, and offered incense the first of the
company.
“And next our chief,” exclaimed Yoshida.
“Nay,” said the Karo, “there is yet one who should pass
before me. ”
«What man can that be? ” asked Yoshida wonderingly, while
his comrades echoed his words.
The Karo, without replying, drew a purse made of striped
stuff from his bosom. “He who shall precede me,” cried the
Karo, “is Hayano Kampei. A negligence of his duty as a vassal
prevented him from being received into our number; but, eager
to take at least a part in the erection of a monument to his liege
lord, he sold away his wife, and thus became able to furnish his
share toward the expense.
As his father-in-law had the money,
and was murdered, and I caused the subscription to be returned
to him, mad with despair he committed seppuku and died — a most
miserable and piteous death. A11
my
life I shall never cease
to regret having caused the money to be returned to him; never
for a moment will be absent from my memory that through my
fault he came to so piteous an end. During this night's strug-
gle the purse has been among us, borne by Heiyemon. Let the
latter pass forward, and in the name of his sister's dead husband,
burn incense before the tablet of our lord. ”
Heiyemon, thus addressed, passed forward, exclaiming, “From
amidst the shadows of the tall grass blades the soul of Kampei
thanks you for the unlooked-for favor you confer upon him. ”
Laying the purse upon the censer, he added:-
« 'Tis Hayano Kampei who, second in turn, offers incense
before the tablet of his liege lord. ”
The remainder followed, offering up in like manner -- amid
loud cries of grief, and with sobs and tears, and trembling in the
anguish of their minds — incense before the tablet of their master.
* «Pardon me » (for going forward).


## p. 8182 (#382) ###########################################

8182
JAPANESE LITERATURE
f
Suddenly the air is filled with the din of the trampling of
men, with the clatter of hoofs, and with the noise of war drums.
Yuranosuke does not change a feature.
« 'Tis the retainers of Moronao who are coming down upon
us: why should we fight with them? ”
The Karó is about to give the signal to his comrades to
accomplish the final act of their devotion, by committing seppuku
in memory of their lord, when Momonoi Wakasanosuke appears
upon the scene, disordered with the haste he had used, in his
fear of being too late.
"Moroyasu, the young brother of Moronao, is already at the
great gate, cries Momonoi. « If you commit seppuku at such a
moment it will be said that you were driven to it by fear, and
an infamous memory will attach to your deed.
I counsel you to
depart hence without delay, and betake yourselves to the burial-
place of your lord, the Temple of Kömyo. ”
“So shall it be,” answered Yuranosuke after a pause. “We
will do as you counsel us, and will accomplish our last hour
before the tomb of our ill-fated lord. We would ask you, Sir
Wakasanosuke, to prevent our enemies from following us. ”
Hardly had Yuranosuke concluded, when Yakushiji Jirūza-
yemon and Sagisaka Bannai suddenly rushed forth from their
hiding-places, shouting — "Oboshi, villain, thou shalt not escape! ”
and struck right and left at the Karo. Without a moment's
delay Rikiya hastened to his father's assistance, and forced the
wretches to turn their weapons against himself. The struggle
did not last long. Avoiding a blow aimed at him by Yaku.
shiji, Rikiya cut the fellow down, and left him writhing in mor-
tal agony upon the ground. Bannai met with a similar fate: a
frightful gash upon the leg brought him to his knee,-a piti-
able spectacle enough, - and a few moments afterward the wretch
breathed his last.
"A valiant deed, a valiant deed! »
Forever and ever shall the memory endure of these faithful
clansmen; and in the earnest hope that the story of their loyalty
- full bloom of the bamboo leaf* — may remain a bright example
—
as long as the dynasty of our rulers shall last, has the foregoing
tale of their heroism been writ down.
а
* The name of each heir to the Tokugawa Shogunate contained the name
take (bamboo).


## p. 8183 (#383) ###########################################

JAPANESE LITERATURE
8183
OPENING TO (GLIMPSES OF DREAMLANDS)
The
»
[This extract from the preface to one of Bakin's famous novels, published
1809-10, is part of a translation by Ludovic Mordwin, who characterizes Bakin
as a rationalist of the most modern Teutonic type; and his grim satire and
good-tempered cynicism best remind us alternately of Carlyle and Thackeray. ]
HE length of man's life is fifty years, and even in ancient
times men rarely reached seventy. A merely limited life is
received from Heaven-and-Earth by man, but his passions
have no limit. He is bound like a slave to the cent which he
wears his nails to the very quick to obtain. Before the six-
monthly term days arrive, payments and receipts are being briskly
carried on, pleadings for grace or money, and loud lamentations;
men borrowing with the meek, downcast look of a stone saint,
yet rushing off to evil deeds with it whenever they grasp the
desired treasure, and then repaying their loan with visage scowl.
ing like the King of Hell when he has his mouth smeared with
red incense.
The popular proverb that even in hell sins are estimated in
money” is, alas! esteemed a golden saying. "My property," and
«this or the other man's," although receiving the titles of their
owners, remain but a little time, like a passing traveler who tar-
ries for a night; for if there is income there is also expenditure.
Eating and drinking, after all, are the pegs which give strength
and continuity to life; and when you are really hungry perhaps
nothing tastes nasty. Barbarous foreigners buy the first bonitos
of the season with a golden koban, and when they have devoured
them still crave for more. If you try to fare on plain rice
flavored only with tea, it will travel but about three inches down
your throat, and soon all will find its way to the public boats. A
tight little house that you can get your knees into is quite large
enough. The grand palace of the Chinese Emperor Shiko and a
straw hovel differ only in being spacious or narrow, and in being
placed in the country or in the capital. If you have but a room
which a single mat covers, and in which you can just manage to
stretch your legs, your body will be completely protected. So
again, when you have packed your five feet of carcass into clothes,
they form a convenient temporary skin to your frame; while the
finest brocade or the coarsest rags differ only in being brilliant
or dirty. When men die and become mere clay, no one by
looking at their flayed [unclothed] bodies only can tell which of


## p. 8184 (#384) ###########################################

8184
JAPANESE LITERATURE
them wore the grandest raiment during life. A waist-cloth made
of silk crape is after all only a waist-cloth. When the true prin-
ciples which ought to regulate these things have been appre-
hended, our shoulders and knees will no doubt be covered with
such patches of all sorts and hues as may first come to hand;
but when one knowing of any costly article for which he has no
special purpose strikes a bargain on the condition of two six-
monthly payments, adorns himself with a borrowed wadded gown,
and points his toes to the pawn-shop, it is really a most pitiful
state of affairs !
According to the kind of costume they wear, men are divided
into great and mean; and if one follows simply the laws of eti-
quette in regard to the cut and color of his clothes, putting on
even tattered pants and carrying a rusty sword in his girdle,
though his possessions may be slender, still he can pay his debts.
Performing all the duties assigned to him by Heaven, seizing the
opportunity which a little leisure affords to turn over the green
covers of an old book, viewing the ways and manners of the
ancients, and resolving henceforth to mend his own ways, this is
better far than purchasing pain with money. The Religion of
Heaven does not give superabundantly. If a man has money he
may have no children to bestow it upon; if his family is large
his means may be small; handsome men are often fools, ugly men
clever; taking sorts of fellows are frequently lascivious, and men
poor in speech are strong in will.
ON PAINTING
>
[This illustration of art criticism is from the “Tamagatsuma' (Wicker
Basket) of Motoori, an entertaining miscellany by this modern master of Jap-
anese prose. Professor Chamberlain, translator of the extract given here, says
that “as a stylist Motoori stands quite alone amongst Japanese writers. His
elegance is equaled only by his perspicuity. . . This greatest scholar and
writer of modern Japan was born in Matsuzaka in Ise in the year 1730, and
died in 1801. «To him more than to any other one man is due the move.
ment which has restored the Mikado to his ancestral rights. »]
He great object in painting any one is to make as true a like-
ness of him as possible,-a likeness of his face (that is of
course the first essential), and also of his figure, and even
of his very clothes. Great attention should therefore be paid
to the smallest details of a portrait. Now in the present day,
T"


## p. 8185 (#385) ###########################################

JAPANESE LITERATURE
8185
painters of the human face set out with no other intention than
that of showing their vigor of touch, and of producing an elegant
picture. The result is a total want of likeness to the subject.
Indeed, likeness to the subject is not a thing to which they
attach any importance. From this craving to display vigor and
to produce elegant pictures there results a neglect of details.
Pictures are dashed off so sketchily that not only is there no
likeness to the face of the person painted, but wise and noble
men are represented with an expression of countenance befitting
none but rustics of the lowest degree. This is worthy of the
gravest censure. If the real features of a personage of antiquity
are unknown, it should be the artist's endeavor to represent such
a personage in a manner appropriate to his rank or virtues. The
man of great rank should be represented as having a dignified
air, so that he may appear to have been really great. The vir-
tuous man, again, should be painted so as to look really virtuous.
But far from conforming to this principle, the artists of modern
times, occupied as they are with nothing but the desire of dis-
playing their vigor of touch, represent the noble and virtuous
alike as if they had been rustics or idiots.
The same ever-present desire for mere technical display makes
our artists turn beautiful women's faces into ugly ones. It will
perhaps be alleged that a too elegant representation of mere
beauty of feature may result in a less valuable work of art; but
when it does so the fault must lie with the artist. His business
is to paint the beautiful face, and at the same time not to pro-
duce a picture artistically inferior. In any case, fear for his own
.
reputation as an artist is a wretched excuse for turning a beau-
tiful face into an ugly one. On the contrary, a beautiful woman
should be painted as beautiful as possible; for ugliness repels the
beholder. At the same time it often happens in such pictures as
those which are sold in the Yedo shops, that the strained effort
to make the faces beautiful ends in excessive ugliness and vul-
garity, to say nothing of artistic degradation.
Our warlike paintings (that is, representations of fierce war-
riors fighting) have nothing human about the countenances. The
immense round eyes, the angry nose, the great mouth, remind
one of demons. Now, will any one assert that this unnatural,
demoniacal fashion is the proper way to give an idea of the very
fiercest warrior's look ? No! The warrior's fierceness should in-
deed be depicted, but he should at the same time be recognized


## p. 8186 (#386) ###########################################

8186
JAPANESE LITERATURE
as a simple human being. It is doubtless to such portraits of
warriors that a Chinese author alludes, when, speaking of Japan-
ese paintings, he says that the figures in them are like those of
the anthropophagous demons of Buddhist lore.
As his country-
men do not ever actually meet living Japanese, such of them as
read his book will receive the impression that all our country.
men resemble demons in appearance. For though the Japanese,
through constant reading of Chinese books, are well acquainted
with Chinese matters, the Chinese, who never read our liter-
ature, are completely ignorant on our score, and there can be
little doubt that the few stray allusions to us that do occur are
implicitly believed in. This belief of foreigners in our portraits
as an actual representation of our people will have the effect of
making them imagine - when they see our great men painted
like rustics and our beautiful women like frights — that the Jap-
anese men are really contemptible in appearance and all the
Japanese women hideous. Neither is it foreigners alone who will
be thus misled. Our own very countrymen will not be able to
resist the impression that the portraits they see of the unknown
heroes of antiquity do really represent those heroes' faces.


## p. 8187 (#387) ###########################################

8187
JACQUES JASMIN
(1798–1864)
BY HARRIET WATERS PRESTON
ACQUES JASMIN, the barber-poet of Gascony, and the legit-
imate father of modern Provençal song, was born at Agen,
in the Department of Lot-et-Garonne, March 6th, 1798. He
wrote with charming ease and vivacity in his native Languedocian
dialect; which is closely allied to that of the Bouches-du-Rhône,
made famous not long afterward by the more formal efforts of Fré-
déric Mistral and the self-styled Félibres. The humble parents of
Jasmin, . after a signally unsuccessful effort to prepare him for the
priesthood, apprenticed the boy to a barber;
and he gayly gave to his first volume of
verses, which appeared in 1825, the appro-
priate name of Papillotos,' or Curl-Papers.
These naïve compositions consisted mainly
of such occasional pieces as are always in
request from the local poet of a provin-
cial neighborhood: hymns for celebrations,
birthday odes, dedications, and elegies:
"improvisations obligées,” Sainte-Beuve
impatiently called them, which, while they
showed the musical capacities of the Gas-
con patois, and its great richness in onoma-
topæic words and phrases, were far from JACQUES JASMIN
revealing the full range of the singer's
power. « One can only pay a poetical debt by means of an im-
promptu,” was Jasmin's own quaint apology, in after years, for the
conventionality of his youthful efforts; but impromptus, though very
good money of the heart, are almost always bad money of the head. ”
At the age of thirty-two, five years after the adventurous fight
of the Papillotos,' Jasmin told with fascinating simplicity and an
inimitable mixture of pathos and fun, in an autobiographical poem
entitled Soubenes) or Souvenirs, the tale of his own early struggles
and privations (he came literally of a line of paupers), and his auda-
cious conquest of a position among men of letters. The touching story
of The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuillé, admirably translated into Eng-
lish verse by Longfellow, appeared about 1835; Françonette in 1840;

as


## p. 8188 (#388) ###########################################

8188
JACQUES JASMIN
and subsequently, at intervals of several years, “The Twin Brothers,
(Simple Martha,' and (The Son's Week. )
(Françonette,' a romantic and highly wrought narrative in verse,
of religious persecution, sorcery, and passion, was held, both in Jas-
min's own frank judgment and that of his ablest critics, to be the
Gascon's masterpiece. It won him warm and wide recognition, not
only in France but throughout literary Europe. Writers of the rank
of Pontmartin and Charles Nodier, and highest of all Sainte-Beuve,
proceeded to make elaborate studies of the poems and their dialect,
lauded their originality, and confessed their distinction. Learned
societies and foreign potentates caused medals to be struck in honor
of the whilom barber's apprentice. He was made Chevalier of the
Legion of Honor in 1846; in 1852 his works were crowned by the
French Academy, and he received the very exceptional prize of five
thousand francs. The head of the parvenu poet was not at all turned
by his abrupt recognition in high quarters. Sainte-Beuve had said,
with his own exquisite discrimination, that the finest of Jasmin's
qualities as a writer was his intellectual sobriety. He proved that he
possessed this rare quality in the moral order as well. It is the
trait by which he is most distinguished from the younger school of
Provençal poets, with their proposed immortalities;— their somewhat
over-solemn and oppressive consciousness of descent from the Trouba-
dours, and a mighty poetic mission to fulfill. Jasmin is never pomp-
ous, and hardly ever dithyrambic. He is above everything natural
and humane; equally impulsive and spontaneous in his laughter and
his tears, and always essentially clean. He wrote slowly and with
untiring care; bringing out his principal poems, as we have seen,
about five years apart.
"I have learned,” he said on one occasion,
“that in moments of heat and emotion we are all alike eloquent and
laconic — prompt both in speech and action; that is to say, we are
unconscious poets. And I have also learned that it is possible for a
muse to become all this wittingly, and by dint of patient toil. ” No
man was ever better pleased by the approval of high authorities than
Jasmin; and he was so far reassured about his first metrical experi-
ments by the commendation of Sainte-Beuve, that he issued a new
edition of his early lyrics, including a mock-heroic poem called “The
Charivari, which he merrily dedicated to the prince of critics. "Away
on your snow-white paper wings! ” is the burden of his light-hearted
envoi, «for now you know that an angel protects you.
He has even
dressed you up in fine French robes, and put you in the Deux
Mondes ! » But he was also quite equal to forming an independent
opinion of his own performances; and when some one congratu-
lated him on having revived the traditions of the Troubadours, the
irrepressible Gascon shouted in reply, “Troubadours indeed! Why,


## p. 8189 (#389) ###########################################

JACQUES JASMIN
8189
I am
a great deal better poet than any of the Troubadours! Not
one of them has written a long poem of sustained interest like my
Françonette! ! ) There is at least no petty vanity here.
Jasmin may almost be said to have introduced the fashion, in
modern times, of reading or reciting his own poems in public. He
had a powerful and mellow voice, and declaimed with great dramatic
effect. He made none of those bold and brilliant experiments in
metre which allured the younger Félibres, but clung always to the
measures long approved in legal” French poetry; especially to Alex-
andrines and iambic tetrameters, and to their association in that sort
of irregular ballad measure of which La Fontaine had proved the
flexibility in classic French, and its peculiar fitness for poetical narra-
tive. Jasmin lived always in the South, but visited the capital occas-
ionally in his later years, and took the lionizing which he received
there as lightly as he had taken the medals and snuff-boxes of royal
dilettanti, or the habitual starvation, varied by frequent floggings, of
his wayward and squalid infancy. He died at Agen on the 4th of
October, 1864, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
A popular edition of his complete works, in parallel Gascon and
French, was issued in Paris in 1860 — one year after the first publica-
tion there of Mistral's (Miréio. ' The rather coarse wood-cut likeness
which serves as a frontispiece to this volume represents a striking
and very attractive face: broad, open, and massive in feature, shrewd
and yet sweet in expression. It is a peasant's face in every line, but
full of power; and the head is carried high, with all the unconscious
fierté of old South-European race.
Full details concerning the first and most interesting period of
Jasmin's remarkable career are to be found in the Souvenirs,' which
begin, as the poet always preferred to begin a story, in a low and
quiet key, confidentially and colloquially:-
:-
“Now will I keep my promise, and will tell
How I was born, and what my youth befell. ”
Harmet aux preston


## p. 8190 (#390) ###########################################

8190
JACQUES JASMIN
A SIMPLE STORY
From My Souvenirs
NY
ow will I keep my promise, and will tell
How I was born, and what my youth befell.
The poor decrepit century passed away;
Had barely two more years on earth to stay,
When in a dingy and a dim retreat,
An old rat-palace in a narrow street,
Behind a door, Shrove Tuesday morn,
Just as the day flung its black nightcap by,
Of mother lame, and humpbacked sire, was born
A boy,- and it was I.
When princes come to life, the cannon thunder
With joy; but when I woke,
Being but a tailor's son, it was no wonder
Not even a cracker spoke.
Only a certain charivarian band
Before our neighbor's door had ta’en its stand,
Whereby my little virgin ears were torn
With dreadful din of kettle and of horn,
Which only served to echo wide the drone
Of forty couplets of my father's own.
Suddenly life became a pastime gay.
We can but paint what we have felt, they say:
Why, then must feeling have begun for me
At seven years old; for then myself I see,
With paper cap on head and horn in hand,
Following my father in the village band.
Was I not happy while the horns were blowing ?
Or better still, when we by chance were going,
A score or more, as we were wont to, whiles,
To gather fagots on the river isles ?
Bare heads, bare feet, our luncheon carrying,
Just as the noontide bells began to ring,
We would set forth. Ah, that was glee!
Singing The Lamb thou gavest me! )
I'm merry at the very memory!
Nathless, I was a dreamy little thing;
One simple word would strike me mute full often,
And I would hark, as to a viol string,
And knew not why I felt my heart so soften:


## p. 8191 (#391) ###########################################

JACQUES JASMIN
8191
And that was school, a pleasant word enow;
But when my mother at her spinning-wheel
Would pause and look on me with pitying brow,
And breathe it to my grandsire, I would feel
A sudden sorrow as I eyed the twain,-
A mystery, a long whole moment's pain.
And something else there was that made me sad:
I liked to fill a little pouch I had,
At the great fairs, with whatso I could glean,
And then to bid my mother look within;
And if my purse but showed her I had won
A few poor coins, a sou for service done,
Sighing, "Ah, my poor little one,” she said,
« This comes in time;) and then my spirit bled.
Yet laughter soon came back, and I
Was giddier than before, a very butterfly.
.
At last a winter came when I could keep
No more my footstool; for there chanced a thing
So strange, so sorrowful, so harrowing,
That long, long afterwards it made me weep.
Sweet ignorance, why is thy kind disguise
So early rent from happy little eyes ?
I mind one Monday,—'twas my tenth birthday,
The other boys had throned me king, in play,
When I was smitten by a sorry sight:
Two cartmen bore some aged helpless wight,
In an old willow chair, along the way.
I watched them as they near and nearer drew;
And what saw I? Dear God, could it be true ?
'Twas my own grandsire, and our household all
Following. I saw but him. With sudden yearning,
I sprang and kissed him. He, my kiss returning,
For the first time some piteous tears let fall.
“Where wilt thou go? and why wilt thou forsake
Us little ones who love thee? ” was my cry.
“Dear, they are taking me," my grandsire spake,
«Unto the almshouse, where the Jasmins die. ”
Kissed me once more, closed his blue eyes, passed on.
Far through the trees we followed them, be sure.
In five more days the word came he was gone.
For me sad wisdom woke that Monday morn:
Then knew I first that we were very poor.


## p. 8192 (#392) ###########################################

8192
JACQUES JASMIN
Myself, nor less nor more, I'll draw for you,
And, if not fair, the likeness shall be true.
Now saw I why our race, from sire to son,
For many lives, had never died at home;
But time for crutches having come,
The almshouse claimed its own.
I saw why one brisk woman every morn
Paused, pail in hand, my grandame's threshold by:
She brought her - not yet old, though thus forlorn -
The bread of charity.
And ah, that wallet! by two cords uphung,
Wherein my hands for broken bread went straying,–
Grandsire had borne it round the farms among,
A morsel from his ancient comrades praying.
Poor grandsire! When I kept him company,
The softest bit was evermore for me!
All this was shame and sorrow exquisite.
I played no more at leap-frog in the street,
But sat and dreamed about the seasons gone.
And if chance things my sudden laughter won,
Flag, soldier, hoop, or kite, -it died away
Like the pale sunbeam of a weeping day.
One morn my mother came, as one with gladness crazed,
Crying, Come, Jacques, to school! Stupid, I stood and gazed.
“»
« To school! What then? are we grown rich ? » I cried amazed.
“Nay, nay, poor little one! Thou wilt not have to pay!
Thy cousin gives it thee, and I am blessed this day. ”
Behold me then, with fifty others set,
Mumbling my lesson in the alphabet.
I had a goodly memory; or so they used to say.
Thanks to this pious dame, therefore,
'Twixt smiles and tears it came to pass
That I could read in six months more;
In six months more could say the mass;
In six months more I might aspire
To tantum ergo and the choir ;
In six months more, still paying nothing,
I passed the sacred college gate;
In six months more, with wrath and loathing
They thrust me forth. Ah, luckless fate!
'Twas thus: a tempting prize was offered by-and-by
Upon the term's last week, and my theme won the same.


## p. 8193 (#393) ###########################################

JACQUES JASMIN
8193
(A cassock 'twas, and verily
As autumn heather old and dry. )
Nathless, when mother dear upon Shrove Monday came,
My cheeks fired when we kissed; along my veins the blood
Racing in little blobs did seem.
More darns were in the cassock, well I understood,
Than errors in my theme;
But glad at heart was I, and the gladder for her glee.
What love was in her touch! What looks she gave her son!
«Thank God, thou learnest well! » said she;
“For this is why, my little one,
Each Tuesday comes a loaf, and so rude the winter blows,
It is welcome, as He knows. "
(
Thereon I gave my word I would very learned be;
And when she turned away, content was in her eyes.
So I pondered on my frock, and my sire, who presently
Should come and take my measure. It happened otherwise.
The marplot de'il himself had sworn
It should not be, so it would seem,
Nor holy gown by me be worn.
Wherefore my steps he guided to a quiet court and dim,
Drove me across, and bade me stop
Under a ladder slight and tall,
Where a pretty peasant maiden, roosted against the wall,
Was dressing pouter pigeons, there atop.
Oft as I saw a woman, in the times whereof I write,
Slid a tremor through my veins, and across my dreary day
There flashed a sudden vision on my sight
Of a life all velvet, so to say:
Thus, when I saw Catrine (rosy she was, and sweet),
I was fain to mount a bit, till I discerned
A pair of comely legs, a pair of snowy feet,
And all my silly heart within me burned.
One tell-tale sigh I gave, and my damsel veered, alas!
Then huddled up with piteous cries;
The ladder snapped before my eyes.
She fell! - escape for me none was!
And there we twain lay sprawling upon the court-yard floor,
I under and she o'er!
But while so dulcet vengeance is wrought me by my stars,
What step is this upon the stair? Who fumbles at the bars?
XIV-513


## p. 8194 (#394) ###########################################

8194
JACQUES JASMIN
(
Alackaday! Who opes the door?
The dread superior himself! And he my pardon re!
Thou knowest the Florence Lion, — the famous picture where
The mother sees, in stark despair,
The onslaught of the monster wild
Who will devour her darling child;
And, fury in her look, nor heeding life the least,
With piercing cry, “My boy! ) leaps on the savage beast;
Who, wondering and withstood,
Seemeth to quench the burning of his cruel thirst for blood,
And the baby is released:
Just so the reverend canon, with madness in his eye,
Sprang on my wretched self, and “My sweetmeats! ” was his
cry;
And the nobler lion's part, alas, was not for me!
For the jar was empty half and the bottom plain to see!
“Out of this house, thou imp of hell:
Thou'rt past forgiveness now! Dream not of such a thing! ”
And the old canon, summoning
His forces, shook my ladder well.
Then with a quaking heart I turned me to descend,
Still by one handle holding tight
The fatal jar, which dropped outright
And shattered, and so came the end!
Behold me now in dire disgrace,
An outcast in the street, in the merry carnival,
As black as any Moor, with all
The sweetmeat stains upon my face!
My woes, meseemed, were just begun.
“Ho for the masque! ) a gamin cried;
Full desperately did I run,
But a mob of howling urchins thronged me on every side,
Raised at my heels a cloud of dust,
And roared, “The masque is full of must! ”
As on the wind's own pinions borne
I fled, and gained our cot forlorn,
And in among my household burst,
Starved, dripping, dead with rage and thirst.
Uprose a cry of wonderment from sisters, mother, sire,
And while we kissed I told them all, whereon a silence fell.
Seeing bean-porridge on the fire,
I said I would my hunger quell.


## p. 8195 (#395) ###########################################

JACQUES JASMIN
8195
Wherefore then did they make as though they heard not me,
Standing death-still? At last arose my mother dear,
Most anxiously, most tenderly.
Why are we tarrying ? ” said she,
“No more will come. Our all is here. "
»
But I, “No more of what ? Ah, tell me, for God's sake! ) -
Sorely the mystery made me quake,-
“What wast thou waiting, mother mild ? ”
I trembled, for I guessed. And she, “The loaf, my child! ”
So I had ta'en their bread away! O squalor and distress!
Accursed sweetmeats! Naughty feet!
I am base indeed! O silence full of bitterness!
Gentles, who pitying weep for every woe ye meet,
My anguish ye may guess!
No money and no loaf! A sorry tale, I ween.
Gone was my hunger now, but in my aching heart
I seemed to feel a cruel smart,
A stab as of a brand, fire-new and keen,
Rending the scabbard it is shut within.
Silent I stood awhile, and my mother blankly scanned,
While she, as in a dream, gazed on her own left hand;
Then put her Sunday kerchief by,
And rose and spake right cheerily,
And left us for a while; and when she came once more,
Beneath her arm a little loaf she bore.
Then all anew a-talking fell
And to the table turned. Ah, well!
They laughed, but I was full of thought,
And evermore my wandering eyes my mother sought.
Sorry was I, and mute, for a doubt that me possessed,
And drowned the noisy clamor of the rest.
But what I longed to see perpetually withdrew
And shyly hid from view,
Until at last, soup being done,
My gentle mother made a move
As she would cut the loaf, signing the cross above.
Then stole I one swift look the dear left hand upon,
And ah, it was too true! - the wedding-ring was gone!
One beauteous eve in summer, when the world was all abroad,
Swept onward by the human stream that toward the palace bore,
Unthinkingly the way I trod,
And followed eager hundreds o'er
.


## p. 8196 (#396) ###########################################

8196
JACQUES JASMIN
The threshold of an open door.
Good Heaven! where was 1 ? What might mean
The lifting of that linen screen ?
O lovely, lovely vision! O country strange and fair!
How they sing in yon bright world! and how sweetly talk they too!
Can ears attend the music rare,
Or eyes embrace the dazzling view ?
«Why, yon is Cinderella! ” I shouted in my maze.
« Silence! ” quoth he who sat by me.
«Why, then ? Where are we, sir ? What is this whereon we gaze
« Thou idiot! This is the Comedy ! »
Ah, yes! I knew that magic name,
Full oft at school had heard the same;
And fast the fevered pulses flew
In my low room the dark night through.
“O fatherland of poesy!