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Page 17
Ko-ya, sor� to?
Ayam� mo wakanu
Rikomby[=o]:
Izur� we tsuma to
Hiku zo wazura�!
[_Which one is this?--which one is that? Between the two
shapes of the Rikomby[=o] it is not possible to distinguish.
To find out which is the real wife--that will be an affliction
of spirit indeed!_]
Futatsu naki
Inochi nagara mo
Kak�ga� no
Karada no miyuru--
Kage no wazurai!
[_Two lives there certainly are not;--nevertheless an extra
body is visible, by reason of the Shadow-Sickness._]
Naga-tabi no
Oto we shita�t�
Mi futatsu ni
Naru wa onna no
S[=a]ru rikomby[=o].
[_Yearning after her far-journeying husband, the woman has
thus become two bodies, by reason of her ghostly sickness._]
Miru kag� mo
Naki wazurai no
Rikomby[=o],--
Omoi no hoka ni
Futatsu miru kag�!
[_Though (it was said that), because of her ghostly sickness,
there was not even a shadow of her left to be seen,--yet,
contrary to expectation, there are two shadows of her to be
seen!_[28]]
[Footnote 28: The Japanese say of a person greatly emaciated by
sickness, _miru-kag� mo naki_: "Even a visible shadow of him is
not!"--Another rendering is made possible by the fact that the same
expression is used in the sense of "unfit to be seen,"--"though the
face of the person afflicted with this ghostly sickness is unfit to be
seen, yet by reason of her secret longing [for another man] there are
now two of her faces to be seen." The phrase _omoi no hoka_, in the
fourth line, means "contrary to expectation;" but it is ingeniously
made to suggest also the idea of secret longing.]
Rikomby[=o]
Hito ni kakushit�
Oku-zashiki,
Omot� y d�asanu
Kag� no wazurai.
[_Afflicted with the Rikomby[=o], she hides away from people
in the back room, and never approaches the front of the
house,--because of her Shadow-disease._[29]]
[Footnote 29: There is a curious play on words in the fourth line.
The word _omot�_, meaning "the front," might, in reading, be sounded
as _omott�_, "thinking." The verses therefore might also be thus
translated:--"She keeps her real thoughts hidden in the back part
of the house, and never allows them to be seen in the front part of
the house,--because she is suffering from the 'Shadow-Sickness' [of
love]."]
Mi wa koko ni;
Tama wa otoko ni
So�n� suru;--
Kokoro mo shiraga
Haha ga kaih[=o].
[_Here her body lies; but her soul is far away, asleep in the
arms of a man;--and the white-haired mother, little knowing
her daughter's heart, is nursing (only the body)._[30]]
[Footnote 30: There is a double meaning, suggested rather than
expressed, in the fourth line. The word _shiraga_, "white-hair,"
suggests _shirazu_, "not knowing."]
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