Prevod

Long ago, a court noble who was then a Middle Captain was on his way to the palace when he saw a priest being led away under arrest. “What has this priest done?” he asked. “He murdered the master he had served for years,” came the reply. “Then he has indeed committed a grave crime. What a heartless thing to do,” the Captain remarked in passing. But the priest raised a pair of bloodshot eyes and glared at him with such a dreadful look that he thought, “I should never have spoken out of turn,” and went on his way, deeply unsettled. Farther along, he came upon another man being led away in bonds. Undeterred by his earlier experience, he asked, “What has this fellow done?” “The man who broke into someone’s house escaped, so we have arrested this one instead,” they answered. “Then he seems to have done nothing in particular,” said the Captain. As he knew the man who had made the arrest, he asked him to release the prisoner and let him go. Such was the Captain’s nature: whenever he saw someone in distress, he would try to help. He had questioned the priest’s captors with the same intention, hoping to ask for his release if the circumstances allowed it; but the crime was so exceptionally grave that he had spoken as he did. The priest, however, bitterly resented his words. Before long a general amnesty was proclaimed, and the priest too was set free. One bright moonlit night, when everyone had either gone home or fallen asleep, the Captain lingered outside, admiring the moon. He caught sight of something climbing over the earthen wall and dropping down inside; an instant later it scooped him up from behind and made off with him as though flying. Before he could recover from his bewilderment or understand what was happening, the terrifying creature had carried him far away to a steep and dreadful place in the mountains. There it set him on a high structure of interwoven wood ((marginal gloss: brushwood)). “This is what happens to meddlesome men!” it said. “You made a trifling matter out to be a terrible crime and brought misery upon me. Now I shall roast you alive in return!” It kindled a mountain of flame. The Captain felt as though he were dreaming. Young and delicate as he was, he scarcely knew what was happening; there was nothing but the heat, growing ever more unbearable, and he thought he must die at any moment. Just then, a great whistling arrow came hurtling down from the mountain above. “What is this?” cried the men gathered there in alarm. Then arrows began to rain upon them. For a while they shot back, but there must have been too many attackers for them to hold their ground. Driven off by the arrows, they fled without another thought for the fire. A man now came forward. “How terrified you must have been, my lord! I am the man who was being led away under arrest on such-and-such a day, and whom you had the kindness to set free. I was overjoyed, and longed to repay you. I feared that your words to the priest might bring you trouble, so I kept watch over him these past days. When I saw what he was about, I wanted to warn you, but, being what I am, I hesitated. Then, in the brief moment when I stepped away from my watch over you, this happened. I came upon him as he was carrying you out over the wall, but I thought that if I tried to take you back there, you might be wounded. So I waited until he reached this place, then drove his men off with arrows and rescued you.” With that, he helped the Captain onto a horse and escorted him safely home. The first faint light of dawn was appearing when he returned. In his later years, he would tell people of this adventure. They say it happened to the Shijō Grand Counselor; I wonder whether that is true.