Košček mostu kot sveta daritev

Besedilo

Košček mostu kot sveta daritev

Long ago, Haku’s mother held a Buddhist service. She invited Bishop Yōen (perhaps Eien) to officiate and presented him with various gifts. Among them was something wrapped in thin purple paper. When he opened it, he found a fragment of the bridge at Nagara, together with this poem: “A pillar from the bridge at Nagara, now fallen to decay—this too I have handed across for the Dharma’s sake.” Early the following morning, a priest called Kokuen, the Acharya of Wakasa, who was also a poet, came to visit. “Ah, he must have heard about this,” the bishop thought. Kokuen drew a written pledge of discipleship from his breast and presented it to him, saying, “Might I be given that fragment of the bridge?” But the bishop replied, “How could I part with so rare and precious a thing?” “What made me think he would let me have it? How disappointing,” said Kokuen, and went home. Such devotion to elegant pursuits is touching indeed.