Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/117

Rh work, the chief idea of which is to present to the reader a picture of various types of womanhood.

Genji, having retired to a monastery in order to be exorcised for ague, espies in a neighbouring temple a young girl who is living with her grandmother, a nun, and who is destined to fix his vagrant fancy at a later period.

"At this season the days were very long, and time passed slowly; so under cover of the deep evening mist he approached the low hedge of which he had been told. Here he sent back all his attendants, retaining with him only Koremitsu. Peeping through the hedge, he could see straight before him the western front of the house, where there was a nun performing her devotions before a private image of Buddha. She raised up the hanging screen and made an offering of flowers. Then taking her place by the middle pillar, she placed a Sutra on an armrest, and proceeded to read it in a voice which betrayed much suffering. This nun seemed no ordinary person. She was something over forty years of age. Her complexion was fair, and she had an air of distinction. She was thin, but her face had a puffy appearance from ill health. Whilst looking at her, Genji was struck with the beauty of her hair, which seemed rather to have gained in elegance by having been cut. Two comely grown-up women were in waiting on her.

"Now there were some children playing in and out of the room. One of them, who might be perhaps ten years of age, wore a white silk gown lined with yellow, and not too new. She had no resemblance to the attendants or to the rest of the children, and her beauty seemed to give