Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan. Shikibu Murasaki

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      On the moon-birth of the Rice-Sprout month I saw the white petals of the Tachibana tree [a kind of orange] near the house covering the ground.

      Scarce had my mind received with wonder;

      The thought of newly fallen snow —

      Seeing the ground lie white —

      When the scent of Tachibana flowers

      Arose from fallen blossoms.

      In our garden trees grew as thick as in the dark forest of Ashigara, and in the Gods-absent month37 its red leaves were more beautiful than those of the surrounding mountains. A visitor said, "On my way thither I passed a place where red leaves were beautiful"; and I improvised:

      No sight can be more autumnal

      than that of my garden

      Tenanted by an autumnal person

      weary of the world!

      I still dwelt in the romances from morning to night, and as long as I was awake.

      I had another dream: a man said that he was to make a brook in the garden of the Hexagon Tower to entertain the Empress of the First Rank of Honour. I asked the reason, and the man said, "Pray to the Heaven-illuminating honoured Goddess." I did not tell any one about this dream or even think of it again. How shallow I was!

      In the Spring I enjoyed the Princess's garden. Cherry-blossoms waited for! – cherry-blossoms lamented over! In Spring I love the flowers whether in her garden or in mine.

      On the moon-hidden day of the Ever-growing month [March 30, 1023], I started for a certain person's house to avoid the evil influence of the earth god.38 There I saw delightful cherry-blossoms still on the tree and the day after my return I sent this poem:

      Alone, without tiring, I gazed at the cherry-blossoms of your garden.

      The Spring was closing – they were about to fall —

      Always when the flowers came and went, I could think of nothing but those days when my nurse died, and sadness descended upon me, which grew deeper when I studied the handwriting of the Honoured Daughter of the First Adviser.

      Once in the Rice-Sprout month, when I was up late reading a romance, I heard a cat mewing with a long-drawn-out cry. I turned, wondering, and saw a very lovely cat. "Whence does it come?" I asked. "Sh," said my sister, "do not tell anybody. It is a darling cat and we will keep it."

      The cat was very sociable and lay beside us. Some one might be looking for her [we thought], so we kept her secretly. She kept herself aloof from the vulgar servants, always sitting quietly before us. She turned her face away from unclean food, never eating it. She was tenderly cared for and caressed by us.

      Once sister was ill, and the family was rather upset. The cat was kept in a room facing the north [i.e. a servant's room], and never was called. She cried loudly and scoldingly, yet I thought it better to keep her away and did so. Sister, suddenly awakening, said to me, "Where is the cat kept? Bring her here." I asked why, and sister said: "In my dream the cat came to my side and said, 'I am the altered form of the late Honoured Daughter of the First Adviser to the King. There was a slight cause [for this]. Your sister has been thinking of me affectionately, so I am here for a while, but now I am among the servants. O how dreary I am!' So saying she wept bitterly. She appeared to be a noble and beautiful person and then I awoke to hear the cat crying! How pitiful!"

      The story moved me deeply and after this I never sent the cat away to the north-facing room, but waited on her lovingly. Once, when I was sitting alone, she came and sat before me, and, stroking her head, I addressed her: "You are the first daughter of the Noble Adviser? I wish to let your father know of it." The cat watched my face and mewed, lengthening her voice.

      It may be my fancy, but as I was watching her she seemed no common cat. She seemed to understand my words, and I pity her.

      I had heard that a certain person possessed the Chogonka39 [Song of the Long Regret] retold from the original of the Chinese poet Li T'ai Po. I longed to borrow it, but was too shy to say so.

      On the seventh day of the Seventh month I found a happy means to send my word [the suggestion of my wish]:

      This is the night when in the ancient Past,

      The Herder Star embarked to meet the Weaving One;

      In its sweet remembrance the wave rises high in the River of Heaven. 40

      Even so swells my heart to see the famous book.

      The answer was:

      The star gods meet on the shore of the Heavenly River,

      Like theirs full of ecstasy is my heart

      And grave things of daily life are forgotten

      On the night your message comes to me.

      On the thirteenth day of that month the moon shone very brightly. Darkness was chased away even from every corner of the heavens. It was about midnight and all were asleep.

      We were sitting on the veranda. My sister, who was gazing at the sky thoughtfully, said, "If I flew away now, leaving no trace behind, what would you think of it?" She saw that her words shocked me, and she turned the conversation [lightly] to other things, and we laughed.

      Then I heard a carriage with a runner before it stop near the house. The man in the carriage called out, "Ogi-no-ha! Ogi-no-ha!" [Reed-leaf, a woman's name or pet name] twice, but no woman made reply. The man cried in vain until he was tired of it, and played his flute [a reed-pipe] more and more searchingly in a very beautiful rippling melody, and [at last] drove away.

      Flute music in the night,

      "Autumn Wind" 41 sighing,

      Why does the reed-leaf make no reply?

      Thus I challenged my sister, and she took it up:

      Alas! light of heart

      Who could so soon give over playing!

      The wind did not wait

      For the response of the reed-leaf.

      We sat together looking up into the firmament, and went to bed after daybreak.

      At midnight of the Deutzia month [April, 1024] a fire broke out, and the cat which had been waited on as a daughter of the First Adviser was burned to death. She had been used to come mewing whenever I called her by the name of that lady, as if she had understood me. My father said that he would tell the matter to the First Adviser, for it is a strange and heartfelt story. I was very, very sorry for her.

      Our new temporary shelter was far narrower than the other. I was sad, for we had a very small garden and no trees. I thought with regret of the old spacious garden which was wild as a deep wood, and in time of flowers and red leaves the sight of it was never inferior to the surrounding mountains.

      In the garden of the opposite house white and red plum-blossoms grew in confusion and their perfume came on the wind and filled me with thoughts of our old home.

      When from the neighbouring garden the perfume-laden air

      Saturates my soul with memories,

      Rises СКАЧАТЬ