"The Dream of a Summer Day" is an essay by
Lafcadio Hearn
, born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (; el, Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χέρν, Patríkios Lefkádios Chérn, Irish language, Irish: Pádraig Lafcadio O'hEarain), was an Irish people, Irish-Greeks, Greek-Japanese people, Japanese writer, t ...
that reminisced on his childhood, and which also incorporated a retelling of the
Japanese folktale of
Urashima Tarō. It was the first piece in the collection ''Out of the East'' (1895).
Essay
"The Dream of a Summer Day" was first printed in the 28 July 1894 issue of ''The Japan Weekly Mail'', and republished in the collection ''Out of the East'' (1895).
Urashima and Irish legend
Commentators have noted a parallel between the underlying Japanese fairy tale of
Urashima Tarō and the Irish legend around Oisín and the fairy princess of the sea, and Hearn might have recalled this legend in writing the piece, even though he does not explicitly state this.
Hearn himself considered the Urashima to be similar to
Washington Irving's "The Adelantado of the Seven Cities" which deals with a search for
St. Brendan
Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 - c.577), is one of the early Celtic Christianity, Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, Br ...
's fabled isle, more so than to "
Rip van Winkle".
Hearn's biographer
Paul Murray has identified it as an "enchanted memory" of his beloved aunt, Catherine Frances Elwood, the elder sister of his Irish father, even though other commentators have assumed it was about his parting with his Greek mother, née Rosa Antonia Cassimati.
[ and ]
Hearn and the Manyo poem of Urashima
Although most commentators stress Hearn's identification with the Urashima figure, Hearn may have also empathized with the ancient poet of the ''
Man'yōshū
The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...
'' who recounted the even older legend of Urashima. For Hearn's essay begins in the same way: he starts by describing the scenery of
Misumi, Kumamoto was a town located in Uto District, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.
As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 9,840 and the density of 203.73 persons per km². The total area was 48.30 km².
On January 15, 2005, Misumi, along with the town ...
where he was then staying, and drifts into the tale of Urashima; likewise, the ancient poet opens by describing the scenery of Suminoe (
Suminoe-ku, Osaka), then launches into his musings about the Urashima legend.
Hearn's Misumi was not anywhere near the spot of the legend, however, he happened to be staying at an inn named "Urashima-ya". The identity of the ancient poet was unknown to Hearn, but scholars have determined the author of this poem have been
Takahashi no Mushimaro
was a Japanese poet of the early 8th century.
He was a contemporary of Yamabe no Akahito, Yamanoue no Okura and Ōtomo no Tabito, and was known for his poems on travel and a collection of local myths and legends.Brower, Robert H. and Earl Mine ...
.
Explanatory notes
References
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2005 plays
Irish plays
{{2000s-play-stub