Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/74

70 HEIAN PERIOD

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:

Ama no karu Mo ni sumu mushi no Warekara to Ne wo koso nakame Yo wo ba uramiji

Like the warekara[1] That lives among the seaweed Fisherwomen gather, I cry none is to blame but me: I have no hatred for the world.

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.

Saritomo to Omouramu koso Kanashikere Aru ni mo aranu Mi wo shirazu shite

My heart breaks that He visits here each night In hopes of meeting me; Little does he realize How hopeless is my plight.

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

1. Warekara is at once the name of an insect that lives in seaweed and a word meaning “of itself” or “of its own will.”