Japanese Literature: Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical Poetry and Drama of Japan
General
Japanese Literature: Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical Poetry and Drama of Japan
Japan -- Literary collections; Japanese literature -- Translations into English
"There may be some truth in this," thought the Emperor, and he began
to regard her with awakening interest.
This was related to the Empress-Dowager. She, however, gave no
encouragement whatever to the idea, "How terrible!" she said. "Do we
not remember the cruel harshness of the mother of the Heir-apparent,
which hastened the fate of Kiri-Tsubo!"
While thus discountenancing any intimacy between her daughter and the
Emperor, she too died, and the princess was left parentless. The
Emperor acted with great kindness, and intimated his wish to regard
her as his own daughter. In consequence of this her guardian, and her
brother, Prince Hiob-Kio, considering that life at Court would be
better for her and more attractive for her than the quiet of her own
home, obtained for her an introduction there.
She was styled the Princess Fuji-Tsubo (of the Chamber of Wistaria),
from the name of the chamber which was assigned to her.
There was, indeed, both in features and manners a strange resemblance
between her and Kiri-Tsubo. The rivals of the latter constantly caused
pain both to herself and to the Emperor; but the illustrious birth of
the Princess prevented any one from ever daring to humiliate her, and
she uniformly maintained the dignity of her position. And to her alas!
the Emperor's thoughts were now gradually drawn, though he could not
yet be said to have forgotten Kiri-Tsubo.
The young Prince, whom we now style Genji (the Gen), was still with
the Emperor, and passed his time pleasantly enough in visiting the
various apartments where the inmates of the palace resided. He found
the companionship of all of them sufficiently agreeable; but beside
the many who were now of maturer years, there was one who was still in
the bloom of her youthful beauty, and who more particularly caught his
fancy, the Princess Wistaria. He had no recollection of his mother,
but he had been told by Naishi-no-Ske that this lady was exceedingly
like her; and for this reason he often yearned to see her and to be
with her.
The Emperor showed equal affection to both of them, and he sometimes
told her that he hoped she would not treat the boy with coldness or
think him forward. He said that his affection for the one made him
feel the same for the other too, and that the mutual resemblance of
her own and of his mother's face easily accounted for Genji's
partiality to her. And thus as a result of this generous feeling on
the part of the Emperor, a warmer tinge was gradually imparted both to
the boyish humor and to the awakening sentiment of the young Prince.
The mother of the Heir-apparent was not unnaturally averse to the
Princess, and this revived her old antipathy to Genji also. The beauty
of her son, the Heir-apparent, though remarkable, could not be
compared to his, and so bright and radiant was his face that Genji was
called by the public Hikal-Genji-no-Kimi (the shining Prince Gen).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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