Poems and Stories of the Xaverians in Japan

Xaverians in Japan

Poems and Stories

| |

Mout Fuji

Look!
There is enthroned
the proud peek of Fuji.
The clouds of the sky
do not dare to cross it.
The birds do not attempt
to fly over it.
The snow stops the burning fires
and the fires melt the falling snow.
Our words are confused.
No one can say its name

Takahashi Mishimaro

Missing Home

As I eat a melon
I think of my children
and I’ll think of them even morewhen I eat chestnuts.
Their dear smiling faces
are ever present in me;
their memory, my eyes cannot let go,
with their faces in mind I cannot sleep.

Yamanoueno Okura

I Give them to You

The infinite flowers
of endless fields,
I give them to you:
necklace,
tied together with a red Rubin.

The twinkling stars in the sky,
of this chill night,
I give them to you:
crystals
in a velvet cup.

The colorful sails,
of this quiet sea,
I give them to you:
I write on them
your sovereign name.

The beatings and sighs
of this trembling heart
I give them to you,
Light who gives form and color
to every creature.

Atarashi Kikuko

Mother’s Eyes

If I stop and look inside
my mother’s eyesI see an enchanted lake
surrounded by trees and forest green,
a distant isle
in the midst of calm and clear waters.

Oh, how I wish I could go
in the clear silence
where fish swim
and where birds sing
amidst colors and sounds
full of joy.

If I stop and look inside
my mother’s eyesI see an enchanted lake.

Popular Song

Hidden Words

Every branch full of flowers
hides
hundreds of words.
Oh! Try to understand them.

Fujiwara Hirotsugu

Alone!

Even trees who ask nothing ever
have brothers and sisters.
What a sadness, mine,
to be an only child!

Ichihara

Story: The Grateful Crane

Once upon a time, a poor man lived in a little house. It was winter time and snow was falling silently. One day after work, the young man was walking home in the snow when he heard a strange groaning noise. Wondering where this sound was coming from, he walked towards it into surrounding fields. What he found was a crane moaning and groaning. It's wing had been pierced by an arrow. The young man felt sad for the bird and pulled the arrow out. The crane now free, flew away and vanished in the sky.

The young man returned home. He was poor and lonely and his life was miserable. Nobody even visited him. But on that night, very late, someone came and knocked at the door. He was wondering who would call on him so late on a snowy evening. When he opened the door, how great was his surprise when he saw that his visitor was a lovely young woman! She was lost and begged him to let her stay the night. She stayed next night too. And the night after.

Finally, the young man asked this nice girl to marry him, and she agreed. They were happy, in spite of being very poor. The neighborhood was also delighted with their happiness. Nevertheless, winter was long and cold and one day it came that there was neither food nor money left to go on living. So the young woman made up her mind to weave a piece of cloth and asked her husband to prepare a loom for her in a room at the back of the house.

Before she started weaving, she said to him, "You shall not come and peep in." The husband promised that he would not. The young woman then shut herself in the room, and started weaving. The young man waited for one day and a night, and then for two days and two nights. His wife was still weaving and weaving without a break. At the end of the third day the bride wan and exhausted, brought in her work. It was the most gorgeous, wonderful piece of cloth one can dream of. The young man traveled to the nearest town to sell it, and as it was a very precious and rare piece of cloth, he was able to sell it for a great amount of money.

Thanks to this money, they were able to live peacefully for a while. But winter was not yet over and one more time there was no more food or money left over. Therefore the bride decided to weave one more piece of cloth. She warned her husband again not to peep in and started working. Two days and two nights went by, and it was not over yet on. The night of the fourth day the bride appeared, more tired and wan and produced a piece of cloth much more gorgeous and beautiful than the first one. The young man left for the nearest town and sold this magnificent piece of cloth for an amount of money he would have never dreamt of.

His wife made him happy and thanks to the weaving his life was not miserable anymore, but the young man came to wish he had more and more money. Moreover, the neighbors were harassing him with questions about his wife and her weaving. They thought it very queer that she could weave such gorgeous pieces of cloth without even buying a single thread. The young man too was wondering how she managed. Wanting money so much, he asked his wife for another piece of cloth. The bride did not see the point of earning so much money, but finally she reluctantly agreed to weave one more piece of cloth.

"You shall not come and peep in", she reminded him of his promise and went to work. But the young man grew impatient and inquisitive; he wanted so much to find out what was going on. He forgot about his promise, crept to the little room where his wife was weaving and gently, opened the door a crack. The scene he saw made him gasp. Instead of his wife, a crane was there, tearing out one after the other its feathers and weaving a beautiful piece of cloth out of them. The young man finally understood how his wife could weave such pieces of cloth. But then the bird noticed his peeping in and changed back to its human form.

The bride then told her story to the astonished young man. She was the crane he had once saved from death. She had returned taking the form of a young woman in order to pay him back for his generosity. To weave those pieces of cloth she had bruised her own body. But since the young man failed to keep his promise and now he knew the truth about her, they were not allowed to live together anymore. The young man was deeply sorry that he had failed to keep his promise because of his foolish wish for money, but there was no way to change things and they had to part. The young woman became one more time a crane, and flew away.

Service, mission, work, news, and presence of the Xaverian Missionaries in Japan