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Page 25
[_O Ears that be in the wall![53] listen, will ye? to the
groaning and the creaking of the house-post that was planted
upside-down!_]
[Footnote 53: Alluding to the proverb, _Kab� ni mimi ari_ ("There are
ears in the wall"), which signifies: "Be careful how you talk about
other people, even in private."]
Uri-iy� no
Aruji we to�ba,
Oto arit�:
War� m� ga kuchi wo
Aku saka-bashira.
[_When I inquired for the master of the house that was
for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of
reply,--the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its
eyes and mouth![54] (i.e. its cracks)._]
[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests more
than even a free translation can express. _War�_ means "I," or "mine,"
or "one's own," etc., according to circumstances; and _war� m�_
(written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes." But _war�m�_
(one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The reader should
remember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only "upside-down
post," but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down post.]
Omo�kiya!
Sakasa-bashira no
Hashira-kak�
Kakinishit uta mo
Yamai ari to wa!
[_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon
the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted
upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness._[55]]
[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet is
up-side-down,"--all wrong. _Hashira-kak�_ ("pillar-suspended thing")
is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or painted,
which is hung to a post by way of ornament.]
XI. BAK�-JIZ�
The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jiz�, the savior of children's ghosts,
is one of the most beautiful and humane in Japanese Buddhism. Statues
of this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by every
roadside. But some statues of Jiz� are said to do uncanny things--such
as to walk about at night in various disguises. A statue of this kind
is called a _Bak�-Jiz[=o]_[56],--meaning a Jiz[=o]; that undergoes
transformation. A conventional picture shows a little boy about to
place the customary child's-offering of rice-cakes before the stone
image of Jiz[=o],--not suspecting that the statue moves, and is slowly
bending down towards him.
[Footnote 56: Perhaps the term might be rendered "Shape-changing
Jiz[=o]." The verb _bak�ru_ means to change shape, to undergo
metamorphosis, to haunt, and many other supernatural things.]
Nanig� naki
Ishi no Jiz[=o] no
Sugata sa�,
Yo wa osoroshiki
Mikag� to zo naki.
[_Though the stone Jiz[=o] looks as if nothing were the matter
with it, they say that at night it assumes an awful aspect
(or, "Though this image appears to be a common stone Jiz[=o],
they say that at night it becomes an awful Jiz[=o]; of
granite."_[57])]
[Footnote 57: The Japanese word for granite is _mikag�_; and there is
also an honorific term _mikag�_, applied to divinities and emperors,
which signifies "august aspect," "sacred presence," etc.... No literal
rendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of the latter
reading. _Kag�_ signifies "shadow," "aspect," and "power"--especially
occult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached to names and
attributes of divinities, may be rendered "august."]
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