There is an untranslatable pun in the original, which, if written in Romaji, would run thus

Uki-yo wo suteyo t'a
So yo:
Ragora to iu ko wo
Wasurete ka?

Shakamuni is the Japanese rendering of "Sakyamuni;" "Shaka Sama" is therefore "Lord Sakya," or "Lord Buddha." But saka-sama is a Japanese word meaning "topsy-turvy," "upside down;" and the difference between the pronunciation of Shaka Sama and saka-sama is slight enough to have suggested the pun. Love in suspense is not usually inclined to reverence.

[1. Rahula.]

Even while praying together in front of the tablets ancestral,
Lovers find chance to murmur prayers never meant for the dead![1]

And as for interrupters:--

Hateful the wind or rain that ruins the bloom of flowers:
Even more hateful for who obstructs the way of love.

Yet the help of the Gods is earnestly besought:--

I make my hyaku-do, traveling Love's dark pathway,
Ever praying to meet the owner of my heart.[2]

[1.

Eko suru tote
Hotoke no mae ye
Futari mukaite,
Konabe date.

Lit.: "Repeat prayers saying, dead-of-presence-in twain facing,--small-pan cooking!" "Hotoke means a dead person as well as a Buddha. (See my Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: "The Household Shrine"). Konabe-date is an idiomatic expression signifying a lovers' tete-a-tete. It is derived from the phrase, Chin-chin kamo nabe ("cooking a wild duck in a pan"),--the idea suggested being that of the pleasure experienced by an amorous couple in eating out of the same dish. Chin-chin, an onomatope, expresses the sound of the gravy boiling.

2. To perform the rite called "o-hyaku-do" means to make one hundred visits to a temple, saying a prayer each time. The expression "dark way of Love" (koi no yami or yamiji) is a Buddhist phrase; love, being due to mayoi, or illusion, is a state of spiritual darkness. The term "owner of my heart" is an attempted rendering of the Japanese word nushi, signifying "master," "owner,"--often, also, "landlord,"--and, in love-matters, the lord or master of the affection inspired.]

The interest attaching to the following typical group of love-songs will be found to depend chiefly upon the Buddhist allusions:--

In the bed of the River of Souls, or in waiting alone at evening,
The pain differs nothing at all: to a mountain the pebble grows.[1]

Who furthest after illusion wanders on Love's dark pathway
Is ever the clearest-seeing,[2] not the simple or dull.

[1.

Sai-no-kawara to
Nushi matsu yoi we
Koishi, koishi ga
Yama, to naru.