The Romance of the Milky Way Part 6

[Footnote 39: _Hishaku_, a wooden dipper with a long handle, used to transfer water from a bucket to smaller vessels.]

Y[=u]rei ni Kasu-hishaku yori Ichi-hayaku Onore ga koshi mo Nukeru sench[=o].

[_The loins of the captain himself were knocked out very much more quickly than the bottom of the dipper that was to be given to the ghost._[40]]

[Footnote 40: The common expression _Koshi ga nukeru_ (to have one's loins taken out) means to be unable to stand up by reason of fear.

The suggestion is that while the captain was trying to knock out the bottom of a dipper, before giving it to the ghost, he fell senseless from fright.]

Benke no Zuzu no kuriki ni Tomomori no Sugata mo ukamu-- Fune no y[=u]re.

[_By the virtue of Benke's rosary, even_ _the ship-following ghost--even the apparition of Tomomori--is saved._]

Y[=u]re wa Ki naru Izumi no Hito nagara, Ao-umibara ni Nadote itsuran?

[_Since any ghost must be an inhabitant of the Yellow Springs, how should a ghost appear on the Blue Sea-Plain?_[41]]

[Footnote 41: The Underworld of the Dead--_Yomi_ or K[=o]sen--is called "The Yellow Springs;" these names being written with two Chinese characters respectively signifying "yellow" and "fountain." A very ancient term for the ocean, frequently used in the old Shint[=o]

rituals, is "The Blue Sea-Plain."]

Sono sugata, Ikari wo [=o]te, Tsuki-matou Fune no hesaki ya Tomomori no re!

[_That Shape, carrying the anchor on its back, and following after the ship--now at the bow and now at the stern--ah, the ghost of Tomomori._[42]]

[Footnote 42: There is an untranslatable play upon words in the last two lines. The above rendering includes two possible readings.]

Tsumi f.u.kaki Umi ni shidzumishi, Y[=u]re no "Ukaman" tote ya!

Fune ni sugareru.

[_Crying, "Now perchance I shall be saved!" The ghost that sank into the deep Sea of Sin clings to the pa.s.sing ship!_[43]]

[Footnote 43: There is more weirdness in this poem than the above rendering suggests. The word _ukaman_ in the fourth line can be rendered as "shall perhaps float," or as "shall perhaps be saved" (in the Buddhist sense of salvation),--as there are two verbs _ukami_.

According to an old superst.i.tion, the spirits of the drowned must continue to dwell in the waters _until such time as they can lure the living to destruction_. When the ghost of any drowned person succeeds in drowning somebody, it may be able to obtain rebirth, and to leave the sea forever. The exclamation of the ghost in this poem really means, "Now perhaps I shall be able to drown somebody." (A very similar superst.i.tion is said to exist on the Breton coast.) A common j.a.panese saying about a child or any person who follows another too closely and persistently is: _Kawa de shinda-y[=u]re no yona tsure-hoshigaru!_--"Wants to follow you everywhere like the ghost of a drowned person."]

Ukaman to Fune we s.h.i.taeru Yure wa, Shidzumishi hito no Omo naruran.

[_The ghosts following after our ship in their efforts to rise again (or, "to be saved") might perhaps be the (last vengeful) thoughts of drowned men.[44]]

[Footnote 44: Here I cannot attempt to render the various plays upon words; but the term "_omo_" needs explanation. It means "thought"

or "thoughts;" but in colloquial phraseology it is often used as a euphemism for a dying person's last desire of vengeance. In various dramas it has been used in the signification of "avenging ghost." Thus the exclamation, "His _thought_ has come back!"--in reference to a dead man--really means: "His angry ghost appears!"]

Urameshiki Sugata wa sugoki Yure no, Kaji we jama suru Fune no Tomomori.

[_With vengeful aspect, the grisly ghost of Tomomori (rises) at the stern of the ship to hinder the play of her rudder._[45]]

[Footnote 45: There is a double meaning given by the use of the name _Tomomori_ in the last line. _Tomo_ means "the stern" of a ship; _mori_ means "to leak." So the poem suggests that the ghost of Tomomori not only interferes with the ship's rudder, but causes her to leak.]

Ochi-irite, Uwo no ejiki to Nari ni ken;-- Funa-y[=u]re mo Nama-kusaki kaze.

[_Having perished in the sea, (those Heke) would probably have become food for fishes. (Anyhow, whenever) the ship-following ghosts (appear), the wind has a smell of raw fish!_[46]]

[Footnote 46: _Namakusaki-kaze_ really means a wind having a "raw stench;" but the smell of bait is suggested by the second line of the poem. A literal rendering is not possible in this case; the art of the composition being altogether suggestive.]

VIII. HeKeGAN

Readers can find in my "Kott[=o]" a paper about the Heke-Crabs, which have on their upper sh.e.l.ls various wrinklings that resemble the outlines of an angry face. At Shimono-seki dried specimens of these curious creatures are offered for sale.... The Heke-Crabs are said to be the transformed angry spirits of the Heke warriors who perished at Dan-no-ura.

Shiwo-hi ni wa Sezoroe s.h.i.te, Hekegani Ukiyo no sama we Yoko ni niramitsu.

[_Marshaled (on the beach) at the ebb of the tide, the Heke-crabs obliquely glare at the apparition of this miserable world._[47]]

[Footnote 47: _Hi_, the third syllable of the first line of the poem, does duty for _hi_, signifying "ebb," and for _hikata_, "dry beach."

_Sezoroe_ is a noun signifying "battle-array"--in the sense of the Roman term _acies_;--and _sezoroe s.h.i.te_ means "drawn up in battle-array."]

Saikai ni Shizumi-nuredomo, Hekegani K[=o]ra no iro mo Yahari aka-hata.

[_Though (the Heke) long ago sank and perished in the Western Sea, the Heke-crabs still display_ _upon their upper sh.e.l.ls the color of the Red Standard._[48]]

[Footnote 48: The ensign of the Heke, or Tara clan was red; while that of their rivals, the Genji or Minamot[=o], was white.]

Make-ikusa Munen to mune ni Hasami ken;-- Kao mo makka ni Naru Hekegani.

[_Because of the pain of defeat, claws have grown on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, I think;--even the faces of the Heke-crabs have become crimson (with anger and shame)._]

Mikata mina Oshi-tsubusareshi Hekegani Ikon we mune ni Hasami mochikeri.

[_All the (Heke) party having been utterly crushed, claws have grown upon the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the Heke-crabs because of the resentment in their hearts._[49]]

[Footnote 49: The use of the word _hasami_ in the fifth line is a very good example of _keny[=o]gen_. There is a noun _hasami_, meaning the nippers of a crab, or a pair of scissors; and there is a verb _hasami_, meaning to harbor, to cherish, or to entertain. (_Ikon wo hasamu_ means "to harbor resentment against.") Reading the word only in connection with those which follow it, we have the phrase _hasami mochikeri_, "got claws;" but, reading it with the words preceding, we have the expression _ikon wo mune ni hasami_, "resentment in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s nourishing."]

IX. YANARI

Modern dictionaries ignore the uncanny significations of the word _Yanari_,--only telling us that it means the sound of the shaking of a house during an earthquake. But the word used to mean the noise of the shaking of a house moved by a goblin; and the invisible shaker was also called _Yanari_. When, without apparent cause, some house would shudder and creak and groan in the night, folk used to suppose that it was being shaken from without by supernatural malevolence.

Tokonoma ni Ikeshi tachiki mo Taore-keri; Yanari ni yama no Ugoku kakemono!

[_Even the live tree set in the alcove has fallen down; and the mountains in the hanging picture tremble to the quaking made by the Yanari!_[50]]

[Footnote 50: The _tokonoma_ in a j.a.panese room is a sort of ornamental recess or alcove, in which a picture is usually hung, and vases of flowers, or a dwarf tree, are placed.]

X. SAKASA-BASHIRA

The term _Sakasa-bashira_ (in these _ky[=o]ka_ often shortened into _saka-bashira_) literally means "upside-down post." A wooden post or pillar, especially a house-post, should be set up according to the original position of the tree from which it was hewn,--that is to say, with the part nearest to the roots downward. To erect a house-post in the contrary way is thought to be unlucky;--formerly such a blunder was believed to involve unpleasant consequences of a ghostly kind, because an "upside-down" pillar would do malignant things. It would moan and groan in the night, and move all its cracks like mouths, and open all its knots like eyes. Moreover, the spirit of it (for every house-post has a spirit) would detach its long body from the timber, and wander about the rooms, head-downwards, making faces at people.

Nor was this all. A _Sakasa-bashira_ knew how to make all the affairs of a household go wrong,--how to foment domestic quarrels,--how to contrive misfortune for each of the family and the servants,--how to render existence almost insupportable until such time as the carpenter's blunder should be discovered and remedied.

Saka-bashira Tateshi wa tazo ya?

Kokoro ni mo Fushi aru hito no Shiwaza naruran.