Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/206

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190
JAPANESE LITERATURE

only love which can do this. Deep indeed are the roots of passion, and remote its sources. It is possible to put away from us all the other lusts of this wicked world. But this one alone it is very hard to eradicate. Old and young, wise and foolish, all are alike its slaves. Therefore it has been said that with a cord twined of a woman's hair the great elephant may be firmly bound; with a whistle carved from a woman's shoe the deer in autumn may without fail be lured.

"It is this beguilement which we must chastise in ourselves, it is this which we must dread, it is this against which we must be on our guard."

"One day in the tenth month [about our September] I took a walk over the plain of Kurisu, and exploring a certain hill-district which lay beyond, was threading my way along a narrow moss-grown path, when I came upon a lonely cottage. No sound was to be heard except the dripping of water from a pipe buried under fallen leaves. It was, however, inhabited, as I gathered from the chrysanthemums and red autumn leaves which bestrewed the domestic shrine. 'Ah!' thought I, 'to spend one's days even in such a spot!' But whilst I stood gazing I espied in the garden beyond a great orange-tree with branches bending to the ground. It was strongly fenced off on every side. This [evidence that covetous desires had penetrated even here] somewhat dispelled my dreams, and I wished from my heart that no such tree had been."

"If we take a pen in hand, it suggests writing; if we take up a musical instrument, the very act of doing so prompts us to make music; a wine-cup suggests drinking; dice make us think of gambling. Our hearts are inevitably influenced by our actions. We should