ACT VIII.

Who was it sang,

The pool has changed to a shoal, and he who received a stipend is now a ronin with no place to turn to. Through Enya’s fault, Konami, the daughter of Kakogawa, though still linked by love, is deserted by her affianced husband before the exchange of betrothal presents. She is given to moody thoughts, and her mother resolves to go with her to Yamashina and give her in marriage to her lover Chikara. Bearing in mind his present condition, when the mother and daughter bend their steps towards the Capital, they neither take a waiting-woman nor ride in a palanquin. Konami’s snowy-white complexion is tinged in the cold air with the light red of the winter plum-blossom; and the tips of her fingers are frozen as she reaches Kogoezaka (Frozen Steep) and climbs up the Satta Pass. As she looks back, the snow-dust vanishes from Mount Fuji[2]; but her uneasiness, as she thinks her fate will be like it, will soon be set at rest by the fire to be lighted

at her wedding. With these joyful reflections she comes upon the pine-grove of Miho; after it is an avenue of pine-trees, which is now filled by a great procession. Who the lord is she knows not, but she looks at it with envy; ah, if the times had not changed, in such grand state might she have travelled for her marriage. With these dreams of pageantry she passes Fuchu, and when the castle-town is left behind, her mother, to cheer their spirits, looks forward impatiently to the moment when the wedding cups are exchanged and all is still but for the whisperings of the bridal chamber which the daughter will keep secret from the mother. The ivy-covered path leads from the sea-coast where the lashing billows separate parent and child; and here in the tangled path her mother takes her hand and asks her how glad she will be to meet her lover. She pushes aside her mother’s swords at the Mariko River, and near Utsu Hill she is lost in reverie, thinking of her bridegroom. The coloured rice at Seto is hard; and so may be her life, though now she is full of bashful joy. At the Oi River an anxiety arises; for the stream of water and a man’s heart are fickle, they say. Will his heart ever change? As well ask if the flower will bloom in the shade. At Shimada[3], that home of maiden coiffure,

her brooding ceases. Asking herself in a murmur if people know how she is placed, she crosses the bridge at Shirasuka, and further on, at Yoshida and Akasaka, the women of the inns in a loud voice invite the passers-by. “If you would seek a mate,” they sing, “go to the Temple of Kiyomizu, plunge into the Falls of Otowa, and pray for one every day. The dancers’ drum has broken our midday nap.” Oh, how she wishes to tell of her hardships to her husband in the Capital! If it is only the couple and the mother, the Goddess of Ise has brought them together; and the country song is a good omen to her. She comes to Narumi; ah, is that the Shrine of Atsuta over yonder? The boat has hoisted its sail on the seven-ri ferry and the boatmen keep time as they row. The sound of their steering, it is like the cry of the suzumushi (bell-insect); nay, it is sad and lonely as the cricket’s chirp.[4] The boats are few in number, and so runs the mother, and runs the daughter. The hail falls from the sky, and they put up umbrellas with their fellow-passengers in the boat. Now they come to Shono and stop at Kameyama, where part the roads to Ise and to the East. The bells (sazu) of the postal road are heard at Suzukagoe, and the rain falls at Tsuchiyama.[5] So they all say at Minakuchi. At Ishibe and Ishiba she picks up stones, big and little, and fondles and rubs them[6] as they remind her of her husband. In time they reach Otsu and cross the foot of the Temple of Miidera. and hurry to a village not far from Yamashina.