Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/330

326 the tolling of the temple bells proclaimed the moment of lovers’ farewell. We vowed that our love would last into the distant future. She left the chamber while it was still dark and stepped out onto the veranda. She was truly exquisite at that moment, with her dark eyebrows and crimson lips just visible, and a captivating perfume clinging to her sleep-tangled hair. She composed the verse, ‘Strange it is—this morning, because of someone I have met but once, see how the dew has fallen on my sleeve!’

“I answered, ‘Because of love I shall wrap up the dew that fell on your sleeve the night we met, and make it my keepsake.’

“From then on I frequently visited the palace, and sometimes she even secretly came to my lodgings. ‘People will surely get word of this,’ the Shogun said, and he granted the lady a large estate outside the city where we might more easily meet.

“At the time I was a devout believer in the Tenjin of Kitano, and it had been my practice to spend the night of the twenty-fourth of each month in prayers at his shrine. I had been neglecting my devotions because of this lady, but now that it was the twenty-fourth of the twelfth month, the last Tenjin day of the year, I paid a visit to confess my remissness of the previous months. While I was praying late at night, I heard someone near me say, ‘Oh, how dreadful! Who could it be?’ I felt somehow uneasy and asked what had happened. They told me that at a certain place near the capital a court lady of seventeen or eighteen had been killed and her clothes torn from her. The more I heard, the more agitated I became, and unable to stand the strain, I rushed off.

“I found that my worst fears had been realized—it was she. Even her hair had been sheared off by the robber. I stood there, dumbfounded, uncertain whether it was a nightmare or reality. For what sin was this the punishment? Oh, the bitter grief that I then experienced! I had always been overjoyed to be with her, but now I regretted every moment. Why had my heart been thus consumed for love of her, only to have her die and leave me behind? And was it