Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/408

404 :::And in the nightmare darkness gropes for Tokubei.
 * At last they catch each other’s hands
 * And softly creep out to the entranceway.
 * The latch is open, but the hinges creek,
 * And frightened by the noise they hesitate.
 * Just then the maid begins to strike the flints;
 * They time their actions to the rasping sound,
 * And with each rasp the door is opened more,
 * Until, sleeves twisted round them through they push,
 * And one after the other pass outside,
 * As though they tread upon a tiger’s tail.
 * Exchanging glances then, they cry for joy,
 * Rejoicing that they are to go to death.
 * The life left to them now is just as brief
 * As sparks that fly from blocks of flint.

Farewell to the world, and to the night farewell.
 * We who walk the road to death, to what should we be likened?
 * To the frost by the road that leads to the graveyard,
 * Vanishing with each step ahead:
 * This dream of a dream is sorrowful.
 * Ah, did you count the bell? Of the seven strokes
 * That mark the dawn six have sounded.
 * The remaining one will be the last echo
 * We shall hear in this life. It will echo
 * The bliss of annihilation.
 * Farewell, and not to the bell alone,
 * We look a last time on the grass, the trees, the sky,
 * The clouds go by unmindful of us,
 * The bright Dipper is reflected in the water,
 * The Wife and Husband Stars inside the Milky Way.