Song of Ronin

We lay on the reeds

In the marshy places.

They cried for food,

For the sweet cakes of old.

"Father, father,

I am so hungry!

May I have a rice-cake?

I have had no rice-cake

All to-day."

All around

Were the marshy places.

They cried for food,

Those sons of mine.

"Father," they said,

"Will it soon be food-time?"

Can you feed us, father?"

I told them, "No."

And then they cried.

Kira it was,

The great Lord Kira,

Who burnt our home

And drove us forth.

It was his deed

That starved my children,

My little sons

in the wild swans' lair.

We cannot kill him,

We cannot harm him,

We cannot rob him

Of a moment's pleasure,

The unatoned blood

Cries unheeded.

We are poor men

Lost in the snow.