Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/294
that clears all sin away. After such prayers, what evil can be left? Though you should be sunk in sin as deep…
Atsumori: As the sea by a rocky shore,
Yet should I be saved by prayer.
Priest: And that my prayers should save you…
Atsumori: This too must spring
From kindness of a former life.[1]
Priest: Once enemies…
Atsumori: But now…
Priest: In truth may we be named…
Atsumori: Friends in Buddha’s Law.
Chorus: There is a saying, “Put away from you a wicked friend; summon to your side a virtuous enemy.” For you it was said, and you have proven it true.
And now come tell with us the tale of your confession, while the night is still dark.
Chorus: He[2] bids the flowers of spring
Mount the treetop that men may raise their eyes
And walk on upward paths;
He bids the moon in autumn waves be drowned
In token that he visits laggard men
And leads them out from valleys of despair.
Atsumori: Now the clan of Taira, building wall to wall,
Spread over the earth like the leafy branches of a great tree:
Chorus: Yet their prosperity lasted but for a day;
It was like the flower of the convolvulus.
There was none to tell them[3]
That glory flashes like sparks from flint-stone,
And after—darkness.
Oh wretched, the life of men!
Atsumori: When they were on high they afflicted the humble;
When they were rich they were reckless in pride.