Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/402

398  She writhes in anguish but is powerless.
 * Her customer, country bumpkin that he is,
 * Bundles her into a palanquin and says,
 * “There’s no point in your getting hurt.”

No, please, just wait a moment! Oh, I’m so unhappy.

Leaving only her tearful voice behind,
 * The palanquin is rushed back to her house.
 * Tokubei is all alone;
 * Kuheiji has his five companions.
 * The teahouse owners, anxious for their trade,
 * Drive them with sticks as far as Lotus Pond.
 * Who tramples him? Who beats him? One cannot tell.
 * His hair is disheveled, his sash undone,
 * Again and again he stumbles and falls.

Kuheiji, you swine! Do you think you’re going to escape alive?

He staggers about searching for him,
 * But Kuheiji has fled and vanished.
 * Tokubei falls heavily in his tracks,
 * And weeping bitter tears, he cries aloud.

(to the bystanders): I no longer have the face to appear before you. I’m ashamed of myself. I didn’t say a word about Kuheiji but was the truth. I’ve always thought of him as a brother, and when he came weeping to me, saying he would never forget my kindness as long as he lived, I gave him the money so that it would help both of us, even though I knew that if I didn’t have it tomorrow, the seventh, I would have no choice but death. He made me write the note in my own hand and put his seal to it, but it was a seal which he had already reported as lost. Now he has turned the tables on me. Oh, it’s humiliating and mortifying to be thus kicked and beaten, unable to assert my manhood or to redeem my debt. I wouldn’t have regretted it if I had died after tearing and biting him to death.

He strikes the ground and gnashes his teeth,
 * Clenches his fists and laments aloud,
 * And all who watch are struck with sympathy.