Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/27

Rh *Okuni.—Then, if you desire to live, why have you crossed our path? But now that it is impossible to escape from us, are you prepared to die?
 * Tomo.—No, no, I am not prepared … I wished so much to see you once again, even to glance at your face for only a brief moment!
 * Okuni.—What! What did you say?
 * Tomo.—(With a sad smile) Oh, madam, do not be so hard and cruel to me. I must now tell you the truth … For the past four years ever since you left Hiroshima, I have followed you like a shadow, day and night. A coward in love, you know, sometimes forgets the dangers of life!
 * Gohei.—Followed us for four years! You must be lying to us, for it was only a little while ago that we met you for the first time at Kumagaya!
 * Tomo.—It is no lie, I speak the truth. It was on the tenth of December the year before last—I cannot forget it—that you started from Hiroshima. From there you went to Osaka by the Chugoku road, you then visited Kyoto, and at the end of that year you came down to Yedo, following the Tokaido. Am I mistaken? Oh, Madam Okuni, it was only lately that I disguised myself as a komuso-priest, but it is now the fourth year since I commenced to follow you.
 * Okuni.—Why have you done such a thing? What are your intentions?
 * Tomo.—That I cannot tell you, for I do not know myself. You know well that I loved you, and