Nemidar[’e] no
  Nagaki kami woba
    Furi-wak[’e]t[’e],
  Chi hiro ni nobasu
  Rokuro-Kubi kana!

    [Oh!...  Shaking loose her long hair disheveled by sleep, the
    Rokuro-Kubi stretches her neck to the length of a thousand
    fathoms!]

    “Atama naki
  Bak[’e]mono nari”—­to
    Rokuro-Kubi,
  Mit[’e] odorokan
  Onoga karada we.

    [Will not the Rokuro-Kubi, viewing with astonishment her
    own body (left behind) cry out, “Oh, what a headless goblin
    have you become!”]

    Tsuka-no-ma ni
  Hari we tsutawaru,
    Rokuro-Kubi
  K[’e]ta-k[’e]ta warau—­
  Kao no kowasa yo!

    [Swiftly gliding along the roof-beam (and among the props
    of the roof), the Rokuro-Kubi laughs with the sound of
    “k[’e]ta-k[’e]ta”—­oh! the fearfulness of her face![34]]

[Footnote 34:  It is not possible to render all the double meanings in this composition. Tsuka-no-ma signifies “in a moment” or “quickly”; but it may also mean “in the space [ma] between the roof-props” [tsuka]. “K[’e]ta” means a cross-beam, but k[’e]ta-k[’e]ta warau means to chuckle or laugh in a mocking way.  Ghosts are said to laugh with the sound of k[’e]ta-k[’e]ta.]

    Roku shaku no
  By[=o]bu ni nobiru
    Rokuro-Kubi
  Mit[’e] wa, go shaku no
  Mi wo chijimi-k[’e]ri!

[Beholding the Rokuro-Kubi rise up above the six-foot screen, any five-foot person would have become shortened by fear (or, “the stature of any person five feet high would have been diminished").[35]]

[Footnote 35:  The ordinary height of a full screen is six Japanese feet.]

VI.  YUKI-ONNA

The Snow-Woman, or Snow-Spectre, assumes various forms; but in most of the old folk-tales she appears as a beautiful phantom, whose embrace is death. (A very curious story about her can be found in my “Kwaidan.”)

    Yuki-Onna—­
  Yos[=o] kushi mo
    Atsu k[=o]ri;
  Sasu-k[=o]gai ya
  K[=o]ri naruran.

    [As for the Snow-Woman,—­even her best comb, if I mistake
    not, is made of thick ice; and her hair-pin[36], too, is
    probably made of ice.]

[Footnote 36:  K[=o]gai is the name now given to a quadrangular bar of tortoise-shell passed under the coiffure, which leaves only the ends of the bar exposed.  The true hair-pin is called kanzashi.]

    Honrai wa
  K[=u] naru mono ka,
    Yuki-Onna? 
  Yoku-yoku mireba
  Ichi-butsu mo nashi!

[Was she, then, a delusion from the very first, that Snow-Woman,—­a thing that vanishes into empty space?  When I look carefully all about me, not one trace of her is to be seen!]

    Yo-ak[’e]r[’e]ba
  Ki[’e]t[’e] yuku [’e] wa
    Shirayuki[37] no
  Onna to mishi mo
  Yanagi nari-keri!