 | Adzuma : or The Japanese Wife |  |
Scene 3.
A street in Kyôtô. A lamp and candle-seller's shop in foreground. The dealer is seated among his goods.Enter Fisherman.
Fisherman.
Komban! Mr. Lamp seller, a candle
for my lantern, please.
Lamp Seller.
Do you do such a business, Ryoshi!
that you sell fish by night?
Fisher.
Naruhodo! one must sell when the fish
come; and besides, folks like a fresh tai or tara for
Wataru's house with some aji.
Lamp S.
What is this token on your lantern?
Fisher.
I bought it for the sign of good-luck, but
I am like Kichibei's dog, I cannot read.
Lamp S.
What about Kichibei's dog?
Fisher.
Well, he was drowned for not knowing
his letters. He was always barking at people, and
biting them, until somebody said that if you wrote the
China letter for “tiger” in the palm of your hand, and
held it out to an angry dog, it would become gentle.
Lamp S.
Ha! ha! did they try it?
Fisher.
A learned man did, and the dog bit a piece
of silk out of his hakama, with much of the leg inside
it. Oh, it is ill to be without letters, like me and
Kichibei's dog. Now what really means my lantern-writing?
Lamp S.
It means Temmei—“Destiny.”
Nay! that is well enough for a fisherman!
Lamp S.
How so?
Fisher.
Domo! See you not we are the very signs
and servants of destiny? Here am I, Kôzô, the
hawker, in your honourable shop buying this candle,
and there in the river is a fat koi, eating worms.
And to-morrow, though we have never seen each
other, we shall meet, and I shall catch him, and sell
him for half a kuban. And all because it was destiny.
Lamp S.
So it is! you are honourably right! Fish
and men, we cannot escape Temmei.
Fisher.
For the candle, how much, Danna?
Lamp S.
Nay, nay! give me a little fish, and go
thy way.
Fisher.
There is a bunch of aji, then. Now who
would have guessed Destiny would turn them into a
candle for Kôzô. Naruhodo!
| Adzuma : or The Japanese Wife | |