Home is the sailor, home from the sea...

Home is the sailor, home from the sea:
 Her far-borne canvas furled
The ship pours shining on the quay
 The plunder of the world.

Home is the hunter from the hill:
 Fast in the boundless snare
All flesh lies taken at his will
 And every fowl of air.

'Tis evening on the moorland free,
 The starlit wave is still:
Home is the sailor from the sea,
 The hunter from the hill.

A.E.Housman

It is November, in the year of our Lord 1577. Beneath a clear blue sky, a little before 11.00am, Fernäo Mendes Pinto is working in the orchard of his farm near the village of Pragal. The locals tell me that the name means "wasteland", although where Senhor Pinto is tending his pomegranate trees the ground seems quite productive. I would like to ask the old man about his voyage to Japan, described in his Peregrinaçao. His book hasn't been published yet, but for some years he has been trying to obtain recompense from the court for his contributions to Portuguese international relations and exploration. I would prefer not to raise any false hopes, but the only persona I could come up with that would provide a suitable excuse to interview Senhor Pinto was that of a minor clerical officer sent by the court to obtain information.
In terms of appearance Fernäo Mendes is a little below average height, a wiry, sinewy man, starting to show his age. His face is as deeply creased and as brown as old leather, but lit by twinkling brown eyes. His voice is still as strong as ever, if a little coarse, and as I approach, he is singing quietly as he works. For several years he attended the Portuguese court in hope of obtaining some favour, but now that it has become clear that King Sebastião ("the Desired") regards his accomplishments as of less import than King João III ("the Pious"), during whose reign he first sailed, he has given up hope of achieving his desires by direct influence, and has retired to manage his small farm.
It should be said, in defence of King Sebastião, that he has implemented some very forward-thinking policies, among them the Celeiros Comuns (Communal Granaries), a program to support struggling farmers during times of hardship, with the proviso that they repay their loans in produce when conditions improve.
Once I have introduced myself my first priority is to make clear that I cannot confirm, or deny that he might receive some recompense for his exploratory voyages, but after that Senhor Pinto suggests that we adjourn to the farmhouse. Comfortably seated in the shade of an elderly olive tree, with a small cup of sirop de grenadines, a strong, sweet liqueur made from the fruit of his own orchard, I intersperse questions about crop yield and local markets with my own curiosity.

Fernäo Mendes tells me how he was first driven onto the Japanese shore by a storm, as a paying passenger on a Chinese junk. The Captain of the junk is a disreputable trader who sells his wares to the Japanese for extortionate prices, but the islanders have little choice but to pay his prices. In a maneuver which Niccolo Macchiavelli himself might have admired, Fernäo Mendes ingratiates himself with the daimyo, the district governor, by offering his arquebus as a model to be copied.
But more importantly to me, he offers to play two traditional Japanese songs which he learned during his time as ambassador to the daimyo of Bungo. He asks his wife Maria to fetch his cithern, and a few minutes later their seven-year-old daughter joins us carrying the instrument. Fernäo is happy to let her accompany his singing, excusing himself on the grounds that she is a better player than he. The first song, Sakura, is a traditional Japanese song, comparing the frail beauty of the cherry blossom with that of human life.




X:1                          % number
T:Sakura                     % title
C:Anonymous                  % composer
O:Gerald Walker              % origin.
O:loulou2032@yahoo.com.sg
M:C                          % meter
L:1/4                        % length of shortest note
Q:                           % tempo
K:G                          % key
V:1                          % voice 1
e e f2 | e e f2 | e f g f | e f/e/ c2 | B G B c |
B B/G/ F2 | e f g f | e f/e/ c2 | B G B c | B B/G/ F2 | e e f2 |
e e f2 | B c f/e/ c | B2 z2 |]
X:3                          % number
T:Kojo no Tsuki              % title
C:Kati                       % composer
O:Gerald Walker              % origin.
M:C                          % meter
L:1/4                        % length of shortest note
Q:                           % tempo
K:F                          % key
V:1                          % voice 1
A A d e | f e d2 | B B A G | A3 z | A A d e |
w:Ha ru ko--yo--no; ha na no e n. Me gu ru sa
f e d2 | B G A>A | D3 z | F F E D | B>B A2 | G A B>B |
w:ka zu ki, ka ge sa si te. chi yo no ma tsu ga e, ma ki i de,
A3 z | A A d e | f e d2 | B G A>A | D3 z |]
w:shi. Mu ka shi no hi ka ri, i ma i zu ko.
To convert the code above to sheet music, or listen to the tunes, copy the code for a single song, then paste it here and [submit].