Chapter 21 princess of six palaces

princess of six palaces Akutagawa Ryunosuke one The father of Princess Liugong was born to a palace girl in the past.He is an old-fashioned figure who is behind the times, and the official has not been promoted above Daisuke of the Ministry of War.The princess lives with her parents in a courtyard with tall trees next to the Sixth Palace, and this is how the name of the Princess of the Sixth Palace comes from. The parents doted on the princess very much, but they just spoiled her blindly. They didn't find a suitable son-in-law for her, and they just waited for her to be proposed.According to her parents' upbringing, the princess lived a peaceful life, a life without worries and joys.She has never been through the world, and she is not dissatisfied with the current life. She only thinks: "As long as my parents live a long and healthy life."

The cherry trees beside the ancient pond bloom a few clusters of flowers every year, and the princess has grown into a quiet and married beauty unconsciously.The father who was the backer suddenly became an old friend because of old age and alcoholism. The mother missed the deceased and was depressed. After about half a year, she finally went with her father.Not only is the princess sad, but what is even more unfortunate is that the world is boundless and she doesn't know what to do.Apart from a wet nurse, this princess, who has always been spoiled and pampered, has no one to rely on. The wet nurse was loyal and worked hard for the princess, but the snail-inlaid glove box and the platinum incense burner passed down from the family were all sold off one by one.The male and female servants also began to leave one by one.The princess finally gradually understood the difficulties of life.But it is not within her power to change this situation.She still just faces the lonely courtyard, playing the piano and reciting poems as before, day by day.

On an autumn evening, the wet nurse walked up to the princess, hesitated for a long time, and finally said something like this: "My nephew who is a monk told me that there is an official who was a state secretary in the Danba country, and I admire him very much." Princess, I want to get acquainted with you. That man looks talented and has a gentle temperament. His father is also a local official, and he was a third-rank Beijing official in the previous generation. Can you meet him? It is not without a little help now that life is so difficult ah!" The princess cried in a low voice. In order to subsidize a difficult life, giving her body to a man is not the same as selling her body?Of course, I also know that there are many such things in the world.Thinking of this makes me even more sad.Facing the nursing mother, the princess buried her jade face deeply in the sleeve of her shirt amidst the sound of falling leaves in the autumn wind.

two From then on, the princess met the man every night.The man was just like what the wet nurse said, he was a gentle person with elegant appearance, and anyone could see that he was very attracted to the beautiful princess.The princess didn't hate him, and sometimes felt that she had been relied on for life.But in the printed tent, there was not a night of joy when they fell in love with the man under the dazzling lights. ①In ancient times, polygamy was practiced in Japan. Apart from the main wife, they often met several women who came and went at night as concubine. During this period, a new atmosphere began to be added to the yard. The pergola and curtains were replaced with new ones.But the princess is still very indifferent to this change.

One rainy night, the man and the princess sat and drank wine, and told a terrible story about Danba.There was a traveler who went to Izumo and stayed in an inn at the foot of Mt. Dajiang. It happened that the woman in this inn was about to give birth and gave birth to a girl safely that night.The passenger suddenly saw a big man running out of the mother's room, saying: "The life expectancy is eight years, and he killed himself." The man quickly ran outside and disappeared.Nine years later, the traveler stayed in this inn again because he was passing through Beijing. Sure enough, he found out that the girl died unexpectedly when she was eight years old.She jumped from a tree and just happened to get a scythe, which stuck it in her throat. ——That's the story.The princess was very sad when she heard this, and felt that life was destined. She thought that she was lucky to have this man to rely on, compared to that girl.

"Everything is destined." The princess thought, with a smile on her face. The pine trees under the eaves had their branches broken by the heavy snow.During the day, the princess plays the piano and double-six as usual, and at night she sleeps in the same quilt with a man, listening to the sound of waterfowl jumping into the pond, leading a somewhat sad and joyful life. get temporary satisfaction. But this comfortable day suddenly came to an end.One night at the beginning of spring, when there were only two people in the room, the man suddenly said ominous words: "Today is the last night with you." It turned out that his father, on New Year's Eve, had just been appointed as a Mutsu guards, so he has to go with his father to the icy and snowy Mutsu.Of course, he was very sad to be separated from the princess, but his relationship with the princess was kept from his father, and it was too late to declare it now.The man dejectedly explained the whole story to her slowly - "But after the five-year term, we can reunite, please wait for me!"

The princess has fallen down crying.Even if you can't talk about love, you are always a man who depends on you for life. Once you break up, the sorrow cannot be described in words.The man stroked the princess's back, comforted and encouraged her repeatedly, but his words were choked up by tears. At this time, the wet nurse and a young maid came in with wine jugs and plates, and told them that the cherry blossoms by the ancient pond had already sprouted... three The spring of the sixth year came, and the man who went to Mutsu finally did not return to Beijing.In the past few years, none of the princess's servants has gone to another master.The east house where the princess lived was blown down in a strong wind one year.From then on, the princess and the nurse lived in the servant's house.The house was small and dilapidated, but it was just a shelter from the wind and rain.Ever since she moved here, the wet nurse could not help crying when she saw the poor princess, and sometimes lost her temper for no reason.

The kitchen was moved under the arbor, and the only food I ate every day was rice and vegetables.Up to now, the princess's clothes are nothing more than a suit.Sometimes there was no firewood, and the nurse went to the collapsed main house to remove the planks.But the princess is still the same as in the past, playing the piano, reciting poems, spending time and waiting for the man quietly. So, on a moonlit night in the autumn of this year, the nurse came to the princess again, and said hesitantly: "The official will not come back, you'd better forget about him. Recently there is a helper of classic medicine who I really want to get acquainted with." Princess, you have been urging me to ask..."

After hearing this, the princess remembered what happened six years ago.When I think about that incident six years ago, I can't stop crying; but now, I am exhausted physically and mentally, and I only want to "grow old peacefully"... I have no other thoughts.After listening to the words, he raised his eyes to look at the moon in the sky, and shook his head lazily: "Now, I don't want anything, living is like dying anyway..." At the same time, the man was sitting and drinking with his newly married wife in the courtyard of the distant Hitachi country.This wife was found by his father, and she was Guoshou's daughter.

"Ouch, what's that sound?" The man stared in surprise at the window through which the moonlight came in, and suddenly the bright face of the princess appeared in his mind. "It's a chestnut that fell from the tree!" Chang Lu's wife answered him, and filled his glass with the wine from the jug. Four In the late autumn of the ninth year, the man returned to Kyoto.On the way back to Beijing, he and his wife's family stayed in Awazu for a few days because they picked an auspicious day. On the day they entered Beijing, in order not to disturb people, they specially picked the time of dusk.When the man was in the suburbs, he had sent people several times to inquire about the news of his wife in Kyoto.Therefore, as soon as he entered Beijing, he missed him even more. After sending his wife safely to his husband's house, he immediately went to Liugong in person without changing his travel clothes.

Walking to the Sixth Palace, the former four-pillar gate, the main courtyard and the wing rooms with the cypress roof are all gone, and only a pile of ruins remains in the courtyard.He stood blankly on the barren grass, looking at the ruins. The pond was mostly filled with soil, with some water plants growing in the middle, and the water plants swayed gently in the new moonlight. He saw a collapsed board room where the main courtyard used to be, and ran over to look inside, as if someone was there, he called out, and from the moonlight, an old nun came out, a little bit kind. When the nun saw the man, she wept silently, and then spoke about the situation of the princess in a suppressed voice. "Have you forgotten, my daughter worked here as a maid, and she stayed here for five years after your master left. Later, my husband and I went to Tajima, and my daughter left here. I just missed her recently. Princess, I came to Beijing to visit by myself. But you see, I don’t even have a house anymore. Just now I was alone in a daze, where did the princess go? You don’t know, when my daughter was still here, the princess’s The days are really indescribable.” After hearing this, the man took off a piece of underwear and gave it to the old nun, then walked back silently on the grass with his head down. Fives The next day, the man ran all over the capital to look for it, but he couldn't find the princess anywhere. So, a few days later, one evening, in order to hide from the rain, he stood under the porch of Xiqu hall in front of Suzaku Gate. In this place, besides him, there was another beggar monk who was also hiding from the rain.The rain was rustling on top of the big red door.With his back to the monk, he walked up and down the stone steps with agitation in his heart.Suddenly he heard someone in the dark door and window, and he looked in through the window lattice unintentionally. Inside the window was a nun who was laying out a broken mat for a woman who seemed to be sick.Looking at the woman in the dim light, she was too skinny, but she could tell at a glance that she was indeed the princess. He was about to call out, but after seeing her appearance, he finally didn't make a sound.The princess didn't know that there were people watching outside, but she lay on the broken mat, made a mournful voice, and recited a poem: Sleeping with curved arms and branches, the cold wind blows by the pillow, this body is used to being safe everywhere now Hearing the sound of poetry reciting, the man couldn't help calling the princess' name.The princess raised her head from the pillow, and when she saw the man, she suddenly let out a low cry, and fell down on the straw mat again.The nun, the faithful wet nurse, immediately hugged the princess together with the man who ran to the table, but seeing the princess's face, both of them panicked. The wet nurse frantically went to find the beggar monk and asked him to chant sutras for the dying princess.The monk came with the nurse and sat beside the princess. He didn't chant sutras, but said to the princess: "You can't rely on other people's power to be reborn in heaven. You have to pray to the Buddha yourself." The princess lay in the man's arms, chanting the Buddha's name in a low voice.Suddenly looking at the algae well above the door in horror, he shouted: "Ah, there is a burning car over there..." "Don't be afraid, quickly recite the Buddha's name." The monk encouraged her again.The princess read for a while, and murmured dreamily: "Now, I see a golden lotus flower, like a lotus flower with a canopy..." Just as the monk was about to speak, the princess continued intermittently: "Now, I can't see the lotus anymore. There is only darkness and the wind is blowing." "You recite the Buddha's name wholeheartedly, why don't you recite the Buddha's name wholeheartedly?" The monk scolded.However, at this moment, the princess seemed to be dying, and she just repeated the same words: "What... I can't see anything, it's dark, only the wind blows... only the cold wind blows." With tears in their eyes, the man and the nurse murmured the Buddha's name.The monk clasped his hands together and chanted aloud for the princess.Amidst the sound of Buddha and the sound of rain, the princess lying on the broken mat gradually turned deathly... six A few days later, on a moonlit night, the monk who persuaded the princess to recite the Buddha's name was still in the Qu Hall in front of Suzaku Gate, wearing a tattered monk's robe, sitting there with his knees hugged.At this time, a samurai, humming in his mouth, strode over under the moonlight.When he saw the monk, he stopped and asked casually, "Did you often hear women crying near the Suzaku gate?" The monk squatted on the stone steps and said, "Listen!" The samurai listened carefully, but there was no other sound except the chirping insects.In the darkness of the surrounding night, there is the breath of pine trees.Just as the samurai was about to speak, a woman's low sigh came from nowhere. The samurai pressed the handle of the knife, and the voice trailed a long tail from the Qudian space, and disappeared far away. "Recite the Buddha's name!" The monk raised his face, "This is a heartless female soul who knows neither heaven nor hell, please recite the Buddha's name." The samurai didn't answer, but carefully looked at the monk's face for a while, and immediately bowed down in front of him in surprise: "You, you are the master of internal records, why are you here?" Commonly known as Qingzi Baoyin, the world calls him Venerable Neiji, and he is a highly respected ascetic among the disciples of Venerable Kongye. Made in August 1922 Translated by Lou Shiyi April 1976