| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: relation." So the poem can also be thus rendered:-- "When the day began to
fail, I had invited him to accompany me...! Now, after the time of that
happy relation, what misery for the one who must slumber alone in the
shadow of the rushes!" -- The makomo is a short of large rush, used for
making baskets.
THE STORY OF O-TEI
(1) "-sama" is a polite suffix attached to personal names.
(2) A Buddhist term commonly used to signify a kind of heaven.
[1] The Buddhist term zokumyo ("profane name") signifies the personal
name, borne during life, in contradistinction to the kaimyo ("sila-name")
or homyo ("Law-name") given after death,-- religious posthumous
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: divine or spiritual agencies (new or old, no matter for that); at any rate,
I believe in spiritual agencies,--so you say and swear in the affidavit;
and yet if I believe in divine beings, how can I help believing in spirits
or demigods;--must I not? To be sure I must; and therefore I may assume
that your silence gives consent. Now what are spirits or demigods? Are
they not either gods or the sons of gods?
Certainly they are.
But this is what I call the facetious riddle invented by you: the demigods
or spirits are gods, and you say first that I do not believe in gods, and
then again that I do believe in gods; that is, if I believe in demigods.
For if the demigods are the illegitimate sons of gods, whether by the
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