LE SAMURAI
C'était un homme à deux sabres.
D'un doigt distrait frôlant la sonore bîva,
A travers les bambous tressés en fine latte,
Elle a vu, par la plage éblouissante et plate,
S'avancer le vainqueur que son amour rêva.
C'est lui. Sabres au flanc, l'éventail haut, il va.
La cordelière rouge et le gland écarlate
Coupent l'armure sombre, et, sur l'épaule, éclate
Le blason de Hizen et de Tokugawa.
Ce beau guerrier vêtu de lames et de plaques
Sous le bronze, la soie et les brillantes laques
Semble un crustacé noir, gigantesque et vermeil.
Il l'a vue. Il sourit dans la barbe du masque,
Et son pas plus hâtif fait reluire au soleil
Les deux antennes d'or qui tremblent à son casque.
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HEREDIA.
In the following pages I have depicted certain Japanese ideals andnotions, as well as some historical facts which seemed likely tointerest those of the sympathetic Western public who may be inclined tostudy the mental side of Japan.
The dialogues are founded upon actual conversations, not indeed alwaysin exactly the same phraseology, nor under exactly the samecircumstances, but something very like. The questions put into themouths of the characters in the book are the kind of questions which arebeing constantly put to me, and my answers are always on the same lines;so that my readers may regard the book as a serious treatise so far asthe materials are concerned. This is the reason why I have written thisbook in a light, conversational style, and not in the form of anordinary critical or expository treatise. Besides, I thought that morelucidity of exposition and more penetration into the inner views couldbe achieved by writing in the way I have done.
The period to which these conversations relate is chiefly the summer ofthe present year, 1905, and the greater part of this book was writtenbefore peace was concluded, and therefore there may be occasionally somedicta which sound somewhat polemic. On that point I can request myreaders to show leniency.[Pg viii]
I have appended to the dialogues a few papers on various subjects. Theydeal with subjects germane to those treated in the body of the work, andit is hoped that they will afford the reader first aid in acquiringinformation relative to the analysis of Japanese social life which hashere, however imperfectly, been attempted.
I may add a few words. In publishing this volume, I am not in the leastdegree actuated by a desire to exalt my