has been on my mind a great deal, even though I have been too far away
to call on her. I have known of course that she has not many more years
to live. Yes, she has been like a mother to me since my own mother died.
Does Hitachi ever come to see you?"
It would seem that he was referring to his sister.
"Not a great deal breaks in on our loneliness and boredom. It has been
a very long time since we last heard from Hitachi. Indeed I sometimes
wonder if Mother will see her again."
Though not especially interested in the conversation, the girl caught
the name Hitachi.
The governor went on: "I have been back in the city for several days
now, but one quickly gets caught up in court business. I meant to come
yesterday and then at the last minute I found that I had to go off to Uji
with Lord Kaoru. We spent the day at the Eighth Prince's villa. One of the
prince's daughters, with whom, I believe, His Lordship was keeping com-
<P 1077>
pany, died some years ago, and then a younger daughter--I am told that
he took her there in secret--died last spring. It was the anniversary of her
death, and he had asked the archdeacon there to see to memorial services.
I suppose I'll have to contribute something myself, a lady's robe or two
would be the thing. I wonder--might I ask you to have them made up if
I give orders to the weavers as soon as I get back to town?"
Here was a story that did interest the girl. She turned away from the
doors lest her agitation be noticed.
"I have heard, I believe, that the saintly prince had _two_ daughters. One
of them is married to Prince Niou. Now which would it be? I wonder."
"The second of Lord Kaoru's ladies would seem to have been the
daughter of a concubine of not very high rank. He was not as good to her
as he might have been, and so now of course he is all the sorrier. They say
he was terribly upset when the first princess died. He even thought of
becoming a monk."
The girl was in tenor. The man seemed to be among Kaoru's intimates.
"It seems strange," the governor continued, "that they should both
have died at Uji. He was in very low spirits yesterday, very low indeed.
There were tears in his eyes when he went down to the river. He came back
to the house and wrote a poem on one of the pillars:
' "I cannot halt the tears that join the flow
Of waters that gave her image, and do so no more.,
"He said very little, but you could see that he was in very low spirits.
I should imagine that the two ladies adored him. I have known him for a
very long time myself and have been aware all along of his extraordinary
kindness and sensitivity. Yes, if I can count on his support, then I have no
wish to be on the chancellor's own personal staff."
It did not take a very discerning person, thought the girl, to observe
Kaoru's superiority.
"Although I should suppose," said the nun, "that no one we have with
us these days compares with the gentleman they used to call'the shining
Genji' or something of the sort. I hear that his house collects more honor
for itself as the years go by. What sort of man might his older son be?"
"Very handsome, very cultivated, respected by everyone. Certainly
one of the most powerful men in the country. But the _really_ handsome one
is Prince Niou. Sometimes I almost wish I were a woman, and could have
my turn at waiting on him."
It was as if he had come with a prepared speech. Ukifune listened in
sorrow and fascination to a story as from another life. The talk went on
for a time, and the governor left. It touched her to know that she had not
been forgotten. Again the thought of her mother's sorrow came first. But
she did not want to be seen in this unbecoming dress. She watched the
women at work preparing clothes--in memory of herself! She said not a
word about the strangeness of it all.
<P 1078>
A nun came to her with a singlet. "Suppose you do this for us. We've
seen how good you are at turning a hem."
But the thought was somehow repellent. "I'm afraid I'm not feeling
well." She lay with her back turned upon all the activity.
"What is the matter?" The bishop's sister anxiously put aside her
work.
Another nun held up a red singlet and a damask robe with a cherry-
blossom pattern in the weave. "If only we could ask you to try this on for
us. It seems such a waste that you should always be in grays and blacks."
"Shall I, having taken the habit of the nun,
Now change to robes of remembrance, think of the past?"
The girl sighed as she jotted down her poem. This world kept no
secrets, and if she were to die and the bishop's sister to learn the truth, her
secretive ways would no doubt seem cold and unfeeling.
"I have forgotten everything," she said, "but when I see you at this
sort of work something does seem to come back, and make me very sad."
"I have no doubt that you remember something, indeed a great many
things, and it does you no good to go on hiding them. I have forgotten a
great many things myself. The bright colors they wear down in the city,
for example; and so I have lost my touch for this kind of work. If my
daughter had only lived! Surely there is someone who is to you as I was
to her? I saw her remains right there before my eyes, and I went on
believing that she had to be alive, somewhere, and wanted to run off and
look for her. And you just vanished--surely there is someone out looking
for you?"
"Yes, I did have a mother, back when I was a part of it all. But I rather
think she died not long ago." She sought to hide her tears. "It hurts to try
to remember, and I really have nothing at all to tell you. Do please believe
that I am not trying to keep things from you." Always a girl of deep
reserve, she fell silent.
The memorial services were over. What a fragile bond it had been,
thought Kaoru. He found posts for such of the Hitachi sons as had come
of age, one with the privy council, another in his own offices. He consid-
ered taking one of the more presentable boys into his personal retinue.
On an evening of quiet rain he went to see the empress. She had little
to occupy her time.
"I have for some years been visiting an out-of-the-way mountain
village," he remarked in the course of the conversation. "People used to
criticize me for calling on a certain lady there, but I told myself that there
was no point in trying to fight destiny, and went on seeing her all the same.
I think almost anyone would have done as I did--and what else is a man
to do when his affections have become involved? There was an unfortu-
nate incident. It made me feel that the very name of the place must carry
a curse, and the road began to seem longer and more difficult than I could
<P 1079>
negotiate. So I stayed away for a very long time. The other day I had to
go there on business, and it made me think all over again how uncertain
things are. The house I used to visit, I thought, the house of that saintly
prince, must have been put up on purpose to urge the votary along on his
way.
Very sad, thought the empress, remembering what she had heard from
the bishop. "Has some evil spirit taken up residence there, do you suppose?
How did she die?"
She would be referring to the deaths of two sisters in such quick
succession. "Evil spirits do have a way of choosing lonely, remote places.
But her death was unusual even so." He did not go into the details.
It would be bad manners, she thought, to hint that she had considera-
ble information about the realm he was so carefully skirting, and she
remembered how depressed Niou had been, how he had even fallen ill. She
remained silent out of deference both to her brother and to her son.
"My brother the general still seems to mourn the girl at Uji," she said
in confidence to Kosaisho~. "I was so sorry for him that I was on the point
of telling him everything, but in the end I held myself back. It might not
be the same girl, after all. You heard what the bishop said. Sometime when
you are having one of your talks with the general, just give him the
substance of it. But do be careful not to say anything that might hurt him."
"Please, Your Majesty. If you think it improper to tell him yourself,
do consider how much more improper it would be for one of us others."
"These things depend entirely on the circumstances. I have my rea-
sons."
Kosaisho~ understood and was interested. One day she found her
chance to tell him the bishop's story.
He was astounded. The empress had probably known at least a part
of it when he visited her; and why had she not told him? But then he had
been somewhat furtive himself--and even now that he had learned the
truth he was no more open. He feared that anything he said would make
him look more eccentric. Perhaps the gossips were already at work. Even
when a man and woman were alive and present and alert, their secrets had
a way of getting out.
"It sounds very much like someone I had been wondering about," he
replied guardedly. "And is she still at Ono?"
"The bishop administered vows the day he came down from the
mountain. She insisted on it, even though everyone wanted her to wait
until she had regained a little of her strength."
The place was right, and not one of the circumstances was at variance
with what he knew. Half hoping he would be spared the knowledge that
it was indeed she, he cast about for a way to learn the truth. He would
present an awkward figure if he were to lead the hunt himself. And if he
were to treat Niou to the sight of his restlessness, his friend would no
doubt seek ways to block the path the girl had chosen. Had Niou extracted
<P 1080>
a vow of silence from his mother? That would explain her curious reluc-
tance to talk about a matter so extraordinary. And if Niou was already part
of the conspiracy, then however strong the yearning, Kaoru must once
again consign Ukifune to the realm of the dead. If indeed she still lived,
then some chance turn of the wind might one day bring them together, to
talk, perhaps, of the shores of the Yellow Spring. He would not again
think of making her his own.
Though the empress was evidently determined not to discuss these
events, he found another occasion to seek her out.
"The girl I told you about, the one who I thought had died such a
terrible death--I have heard that she is still alive. She has come on un-
happy circumstances, I am told. It all seems very unlikely--but then the
way she disappeared was unlikely too. I find it hard to believe that she
hated the world enough to think of such desperate measures. And so the
rumors I have picked up may not be so unlikely after all." And he de-
scribed them in more detail. He chose his words carefully when they
touched upon Niou, and he did not speak at all of his own bitterness. "If
he hears that I would like to find her he is sure to credit me with all the
wrong motives. I do not propose to do anything even if I discover that she
is still alive."
"I was rather frightened when I had the story from the bishop, and
did not listen as carefully as I should have. But how could my son possibly
have learned of it? I know all about his deplorable habits, and have no
doubt that news of this sort would send him into a fever. The talk I pick
up about his little escapades worries me terribly."
He knew that she would never, in what seemed to be the frankest of
conversations, let slip something she had learned in confidence.
The mystery haunted him, day and night. In what mountain village
would the girl be? How might he with dignity seek her out? He must have
the facts directly from the bishop of Yokawa. He made solemn offerings
on the eighth of every month, sometimes at the main hall on Mount Hiei,
sacred to Lord Yakushi. This time he would go on to Yokawa. He took
the girl's brother with him. He did not mean to tell her family for the
moment, not until he had more precise information. Perhaps he hoped that
the boy's presence would bring an immediacy to an encounter that might
otherwise seem unreal. If the girl in the bishop's story should indeed prove
to be Ukifune, and if, further, she had already been the victim of improper
advances, even in strange new dress, off among strange new women--the
truth would not be pleasing.
Such are the thoughts that troubled him along the way.
<W Murasaki Shikibu>{Translated by Edward G.Seidensticker}
<T The Tale of Genji>
<K 6>
<C 54>{The Floating Bridge of Dreams}
<N 1>
<P 1081>
Kaoru made the usual offerings of images and scriptures at the main Hiei
monastery and the next day went to Yokawa. The bishop received his
unexpected visitor with much ceremony. Although Kaoru had occasion-
ally consulted him on liturgical matters, they had not been close. Kaoru
had been much impressed at the effectiveness of the bishop's recent minis-
trations to the First Princess, however. The new bond between them,
thought the bishop, fluttering with excitement over the visit, had brought
this eminent gentleman so far out of his way. They talked on and on, like
the oldest and most intimate of friends. A light repast was brought.
"I believe you have a house in Ono?" remarked Kaoru when the
excitement had subsided.
"Yes, a shabby little place. As a matter of fact, my mother is living
there--she is a nun, and a very old woman. I had no place in the
seemed right, and I decided that if I was to live up here away f
world I wanted her to be where I could look in on her at any od
"I have heard that Ono used to be lively enough, but that
