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Ugo

雨後

[Genre]Sokyoku
[Composed]Nakanoshima Kin'ichi - Koto

History (Tsuge Gen'ichi):

This lovely piece for voice and solo koto was composed in 1939. The song set to a paragraph from Makura no soshi ('Pillow Book') of Sei Shonagon, lady in waiting to Empress Sadako during the last decade of the tenth century, and one of the greatest writers of prose in her time. The title Ugo means 'After the Rain.'

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)

All through the night
The autumn rains
Fell
At dawn they stopped,
Leaving the chrysanthemums
In the garden
Drenched
And overflowing with dew.

Across the fence
Of bamboo, above the hedge
Of high grasses,
Spider webs dangled
In tatters, stretched taut
By raindrops that clung
To their strands like
White beads of pearl.

As the sun rose
Higher and higher,
The dew upon the bushes
Of clover fell to earth,
And though not a person
Touched by them, the twigs
Began to move, and stir,
And suddenly sprang upwards...
Wow!
(maebiki)

Yoru hitoyo
furi akashitaru
akisame no
akatsuki yamite
senzai no
kiku no tsuyu
koboruru bakari
nure kakaritaru
(ai)
Suigairamon
susuki nado no
ur ni kaitaru
kumo no su no
itomo taezama ni
ame no kakaritaru go
shiroki tama wo
nukitaru yoo naru
(ai)
Hi mo sukoshi
takenureba
hagi nado no
tsuyu no otsuruni
eda no uchi ugokite
hito mo te furenuni
futo kamizama e
agaritaru
ito okashi