: Shadowings by Hearn Lafcadio - Cicada (Genus); Names Personal Japanese; Japanese poetry Translations into English

@FreeBooks

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

of such an arm-rest is not confined, however, to the Buddhist clergy.

A yuj?, in old days, was a singing-girl as well as a courtesan. The term "Yuj?-no-Ch?ja," in this case, would mean simply "the first of yuj?."

The sweetness of the voice filled everybody with surprise and delight. As the priest, who had taken a place apart, listened and wondered, the girl suddenly fixed her eyes upon him; and in the same instant he saw her form change into the form of Fugen-Bosatsu, emitting from her brow a beam of light that seemed to pierce beyond the limits of the universe, and riding a snow-white elephant with six tusks. And still she sang--but the song also was now transformed; and the words came thus to the ears of the priest:--

The Screen-Maiden

SAYS the old Japanese author, Hakubai-En Rosui:--

"In Chinese and in Japanese books there are related many stories,--both of ancient and of modern times,--about pictures that were so beautiful as to exercise a magical influence upon the beholder. And concerning such beautiful pictures,--whether pictures of flowers or of birds or of people, painted by famous artists,--it is further told that the shapes of the creatures or the persons, therein depicted, would separate themselves from the paper or the silk upon which they had been painted, and would perform various acts;--so that they became, by their own will, really alive. We shall not now repeat any of the stories of this class which have been known to everybody from ancient times. But even in modern times the fame of the pictures painted by Hishigawa Kichibei--'Hishigawa's Portraits'--has become widespread in the land."

He then proceeds to relate the following story about one of the so-called portraits:--

There was a young scholar of Ky?to whose name was Tokkei. He used to live in the street called Muromachi. One evening, while on his way home after a visit, his attention was attracted by an old single-leaf screen , exposed for sale before the shop of a dealer in second-hand goods. It was only a paper-covered screen; but there was painted upon it the full-length figure of a girl which caught the young man's fancy. The price asked was very small: Tokkei bought the screen, and took it home with him.

Gradually, as he continued to gaze at the picture, he felt himself bewitched by the charm of it. "Can there really have been in this world," he murmured to himself, "so delicious a creature? How gladly would I give my life--nay, a thousand years of life!--to hold her in my arms even for a moment!" In short, he became enamoured of the picture,--so much enamoured of it as to feel that he never could love any woman except the person whom it represented. Yet that person, if still alive, could no longer resemble the painting: perhaps she had been buried long before he was born!

Day by day, nevertheless, this hopeless passion grew upon him. He could not eat; he could not sleep: neither could he occupy his mind with those studies which had formerly delighted him. He would sit for hours before the picture, talking to it,--neglecting or forgetting everything else. And at last he fell sick--so sick that he believed himself going to die.

Now among the friends of Tokkei there was one venerable scholar who knew many strange things about old pictures and about young hearts. This aged scholar, hearing of Tokkei's illness, came to visit him, and saw the screen, and understood what had happened. Then Tokkei, being questioned, confessed everything to his friend, and declared:--"If I cannot find such a woman, I shall die."

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

(0)

Login to post a comment!