Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/411

Rh How sad it is! Other souls have left the world. Namu Amida Butsu.

The woman melts in helpless tears of grief.

To think that other people are dying tonight too! That makes me feel wretched.

Man that he is, his tears are falling freely.

Those two spirits flying together over there—they can’t be anyone else’s! They must be ours, yours and mine!

Those two spirits? Are we already dead then?

Ordinarily, if we were to see a spirit we’d knot our clothes and howl to save our lives, but now instead we are hurrying toward our last moments, and soon are to live in the same place with them. You mustn’t lose the way or mistake the road of death!

They cling to each other, flesh against flesh,
 * Then fall with a cry to the ground and weep.
 * Their strings of tears unite like grafted branches,
 * Or a pine and palm that grow from a single trunk.
 * And now, where will they end their dew-like lives?

This place will do.

The sash of his jacket he undoes;
 * Ohatsu removes her tear-stained outer robe,
 * And throws it on the palm tree with whose fronds
 * She now might sweep away the sad world’s dust.
 * Ohatsu takes a razor from her sleeve.

I had this razor ready just in case we were overtaken on the way or got separated. I made up my mind that whatever might happen I would not give up our plan. Oh, how happy I am that we are to die together as we had hoped!

You make me feel so confident in our love that I am not worried even by the thought of death. And yet it would be a pity if because of the pain that we are to suffer, people said that we looked ugly in death. Wouldn’t it be a good idea if we fastened our bodies to this twin-trunked tree and died immaculately? Let us become an unparalleled example of a beautiful way of dying.

Yes, as you say.