Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/74

70 Now the Emperor was a person of beautiful countenance, and every morning when the girl heard him raise his fine voice fervently and reverently in prayers to the Buddha, she wept bitterly. “What a tragic stroke of Fate that I cannot truly serve this noble sovereign! Tied by the bonds of love to another man, only endless grief can be my lot.”

It came to pass that His Majesty at last got word of the affair. He banished Narihira from the capital. As for the girl, her cousin the Empress Dowager had her expelled from the palace and locked up in a windowless tower in her village, and inflicted much torment on her.

Locked within the tower, the girl said in tears:

Thus did she cry, and each night Narihira would journey from his place of banishment to her, and playing upon his flute with great feeling, sing a doleful plaint in his melodious voice. Though she was locked up in a windowless tower, she recognized her lover’s voice, but bound and tormented as she was there was no way to catch a glimpse of him.

Unable, despite all efforts, to meet his love, Narihira traveled back and forth between the tower and his place of exile.