Читать книгу Japanese Mythology - F. Hadland Davis - Страница 34

The Prince Ishizukuri, after pondering over the matter of going to distant Tenjiku in search of the Lord Buddha's begging-bowl, came to the conclusion that such a proceeding would be futile. He decided, therefore, to counterfeit the bowl in question. He laid his plans cunningly, and took good care that the Lady Kaguya was informed that he had actually undertaken the journey. As a matter of fact this artful suitor hid in Yamato for three years, and after that time discovered in a hill-monastery in Tochi a bowl of extreme age resting upon an altar of Binzuru (the Succourer in Sickness). This bowl he took away with him, and wrapped it in brocade, and attached to the gift an artificial branch of blossom.

When the Lady Kaguya looked upon the bowl she found inside a scroll containing the following:

"Over seas, over hills

hath thy servant fared, and weary

and wayworn he perisheth:

O what tears hath cost this bowl of

stone,

what floods of streaming tears!"

But when the Lady Kaguya perceived that no light shone from the vessel she at once knew that it had never belonged to the Lord Buddha. She accordingly sent back the bowl with the following verse:

"Of the hanging dewdrop

not even the passing sheen

dwells herein:

On the Hill of Darkness, the Hill

of Ogura,

what couldest thou hope to find?"

The Prince, having thrown away the bowl, sought to turn the above remonstrance into a compliment to the lady who wrote it.

"Nay, on the Hill of Brightness

what splendour

will not pale?

Would that away from the light

of thy beauty

the sheen of yonder Bowl might

prove me true!"

It was a prettily turned compliment by a suitor who was an utter humbug. This latest poetical sally availed nothing, and the Prince sadly departed.