The Tale of Genji, Page 74

  The nurse reported this to His Eminence when circumstances allowed her to do so. “When I touched on the matter to his lordship the Controller,” she explained, “he replied that His Grace would undoubtedly welcome the idea, since it would mean the fulfillment of his own enduring hopes, and he added that if Your Eminence approves, he will transmit your proposal. How does Your Eminence wish to proceed? His Grace is sensitive to the gradations of rank among his ladies and is unusually scrupulous about observing them, but even a commoner woman12 may object when a new arrival comes to share the favors she enjoys, and something distressing could happen. There appear to be others who aspire to serve her. Your Eminence should consider the matter carefully. Her Highness is beyond rank, it is true, but while as the world is now there certainly seem to be some who cheerfully have their way and live as they please, she gives the impression of being extremely vulnerable and unaware, and there is only so much that we in her service can do for her. Things seem to work best when competent people lower down follow broad instructions from above. Her Highness is likely to feel lost as long as she lacks a particular patron.”

  “Those are more or less my own thoughts, you see,” His Eminence replied. “Imperial daughters like mine are not always settled at all happily in life, and besides, once a woman has given herself to a man, no lofty rank can shield her from one thing or another that she may regret or quite understandably find offensive, and that is why I have been hesitating so painfully. On the other hand, when someone in her position has lost the person who mattered most to her,13 so that she must get on without him and then sets out to manage on her own, well, once upon a time people were obedient and never dreamed of doing anything that custom forbade, but I gather that nowadays one never knows what wanton outrage to expect next. A daughter who only yesterday was at home with her noble parents and enjoyed all their affection and esteem, today, they say, may well have her name bandied about by the most tedious gallants, sully her late father's honor, and cover his memory with shame. In short, one choice is as bad as the other. What they call good fortune in life is unpredictable for anyone, of any degree, and that is what makes me so uneasy. For better or worse, a woman will have her destiny, whatever it may be, as long as she lives in obedience to the one responsible for her, and if later there comes a time of decline, at least it will not have been her fault. There may seem to have been nothing wrong with a woman making her own choice in the first place, when it turns out to be successful after all and the outcome honors her, but actually, everything I hear suggests that the worst mistake a girl can make is to act as she pleases in secret, merely because of something someone happens to have told her, without a word to her parents or the permision of those from whom she should seek it. Even for an utterly tedious commoner that is a foolish and heinous thing to do. Not that her wishes are entirely to be ignored in the matter either, since it is folly, too, for her to find herself irrevocably committed14 to someone she has never wished to accept; her mood and conduct then are all too easy to imagine. As for my daughter, who seems to me disconcertingly childish, it would be extremely unfortunate if any of you were to take matters into your own hands and the thing then become known.” His desperate anxiety over what might become of her after he was gone made her women increasingly uncomfortable.

  “I had been biding my time until she should understand things a little better,” His Eminence went on, “but you see, I can no longer be patient now that I fear I may never be able to do what I want to do. Say what you will, His Grace of Rokujō knows what matters, and since no one could be more responsible than he, I see no need to take the number of women around him into account. Everything depends after all on the character of the man himself. In dignity and composure he is an example for all the world, and he deserves the highest confidence. Who else is there in any case? His Highness of War is a fine man, certainly. He and she share the same lineage,15 and he would never ignore her or slight her, but he is too languid and dandyish to have much substance, and he seems perhaps to be somewhat lightly regarded. No, I do not hold such a man to be wholly reliable. Then there is the Grand Counselor, who, I gather, aspires to administer her household.16 As far as that goes, I am sure he would do very well by her, but I still cannot help wondering. A man of such mediocre rank could only be a disappointment. In the past as well it was outstanding merit that decided this sort of choice. I believe that it would be a great pity to be too impressed merely by the prospect of loyal and devoted service. The Intendant of the Right Gate Watch17 is quietly languishing for her, or so the Mistress of Staff18 tells me, and at a slightly more presentable rank he might well deserve consideration, but he is still very young and hopelessly junior. His high ambition has led him to remain unmarried, and meanwhile he has acquired an exceptionally proud and deliberate manner. His learning is irreproachable, and in the end he will certainly make a pillar of the realm, but although his future looks bright, I cannot consider him worthy.” He hardly knew which way to turn.

  No one at all was pursuing His Eminence about the elder daughters in whom he himself had little interest, but strangely enough, his wholly private conversations on the subject of Her Highness had spread far and wide, and many gentlemen were now eager to win her.

  The Chancellor told the Mistress of Staff through his wife, her elder sister, “The Intendant of the Gate Watch has remained single, and he is resolved to marry no one but a Princess. I should therefore be honored and delighted if you were to convey that to His Eminence when he brings up the subject, and if he were then to summon the young man.” He had her pass on all he had to say to His Eminence and sound him out.

  His Highness of War, who had unsuccessfully courted the Left Commander's wife,19 knew that she would hear of where he turned next, and he therefore looked very carefully first, lest an unfortunate choice make a fool of him. The news of Her Highness could hardly have failed to arouse intensely covetous feelings.

  The Grand Counselor dreaded losing His Eminence when His Eminence withdrew to the mountains, for he had long served him intimately as his Master of the Household, and he must therefore have done all he could on the subject of Her Highness to persuade His Eminence to look on him with favor.

  Whenever news like this reached the Counselor, whom His Retired Majesty had approached in person and who had watched His Eminence's face as he did so, he swelled with pride to think that if he did show interest, he would certainly not be dismissed, but his darling had now yielded to him for good, and through all those years he had never once turned elsewhere, even when he might have sought his excuse in hardship. How could he now suddenly go back on himself and make her so unhappy? No, he thought, if I were to attach anyone that exalted to myself, nothing would go as I wished, I would never feel at ease, and I would know only grief. He had never been given to gallantry in any case, so he suppressed his excitement and kept silent, but the thought of her going to someone else still troubled him, and his ears took in every rumor about her.

  The Heir Apparent heard about all this, too. He observed, “Rather than favor what is immediately attractive, Your Eminence should consider above all what will set a fortunate example for ages to come. A commoner, however worthy, is of limited rank, and if you mean to choose one, then it is His Grace of Rokujō who is to be preferred as a father to her.”

  This was no more than a casual remark in a letter about other matters, but it had a serious ring, and His Eminence was hardly surprised. “That is quite true,” he answered, “and you have expressed yourself very well.” Being now more and more of the same opinion, he at last sent the Left Controller to sound Genji out.

  Genji already knew all about His Eminence's concern over his daughter. “I feel sorry for him,” he said. “Still, if he has little time left in this world, can I count on surviving him long enough to agree to look after her? Assuming that I outlive him, as I may do in the natural course of things, I will never look on any of his daughters with indifference, and since he has been pleased to approach me about one in parti
cular, I shall gladly give her special attention, but life's vagaries permit no certainty even then.

  “In any case,” he continued, “if I were to become the one familiar and intimate object of her trust, I would feel all the sorrier when it came to be time for me to leave this world, and she would constitute a tie that would be painful for me to break. The Counselor, for example, appears to be young and to lack substance, but he has a long life ahead of him, and as far as ability goes, he promises to lend great strength to the realm, His Eminence could not be far wrong if he were to agree. His Eminence has no doubt preferred discretion, however, since the young man is extremely serious and seems already to have settled his affections elsewhere.”

  He appeared not to entertain the idea himself, for which the Controller was sorry, considering how seriously His Eminence had pondered his decision; and he therefore went on to evoke more personally what had moved His Eminence to reach it. “He loves Her Highness very much,” Genji answered, smiling, “and I expect that that is why he has gone to such lengths to study everything that bears on her future. But the matter is simple: let him present her to His Majesty. No doubt she will find there earlier arrivals to be reckoned with, but no matter. They do not constitute an objection. The latecomer need not lose out. In His Late Eminence's case the Empress Mother went to him first, while he was still Heir Apparent, but then Her Cloistered Eminence, who came to him only long afterward, won his favor from her. As I understand it, the Consort who bore the Princess in question was Her Cloistered Eminence's sister,20 and they say that she was nearly as beautiful. Her Highness must have more than most people to recommend her, considering whose daughter she is on both sides.” He must have been curious about her after all.

  The New Year was coming. At the Suzaku Palace, His Eminence detected no sign that he would recover, and he decided in haste on a donning of the train that would be the wonder of the ages. He had the west side of the Kaedono21 done up, and he would have none of our twills or brocades for the curtained bed, standing curtains, and so on; no, he aspired to the furnishings of a Chinese Empress, and he had everything made to glitter with formal grandeur. He had long since invited His Excellency the Chancellor to tie on the train, and despite this gentleman's usual fussy reluctance he came after all, since he had never refused His Eminence anything. Their Excellencies of the Left and Right22 and the other senior nobles all managed somehow to be there, even those with pressing reasons to decline. The eight Princes, and of course all the Emperor's and the Heir Apparent's privy gentlemen, assembled as well, since these magnificent preparations had become quite famous. His Majesty and the Heir Apparent were particularly sad, because they assumed that this would be His Eminence's last such event, and they made available many Chinese things from the Chamberlains' Office and the Imperial Stores. There were dazzling contributions from Rokujō, too. It was, moreover, Genji who provided the gifts, the rewards, and the present for the presiding Chancellor.

  From Her Majesty as well there came gowns and comb boxes, all fondly prepared, and that set of hair accessories from all those years ago,23 now prettily refashioned, although not to such a point that it had lost its original character. She presented them on the evening of the day, and she made it clear from whom they came. Her messenger not only was her own Household Deputy, but he had served His Eminence as well, and she told him to place it before Her Highness. This poem, however, was in the box:24

  “This exquisite comb, always welcome in my hair to bring back the past,

  has since those days long ago taken on the grace of age.”25

  For His Eminence this called up vivid memories. Her Majesty had hoped that the gift might carry her own good fortune, and since the comb was indeed worthy, he, too, left old feelings out of his congratulatory reply:

  “May she, after you, succeed to happy fortune those ten thousand years

  this exquisite comb foretells, till it has the gods' own grace.”

  Bearing up under great suffering, His Eminence summoned his courage and three days after the event took the tonsure at last. It is always sad when that change comes for anyone, and so naturally his ladies grieved deeply that it had come for him. The Mistress of Staff did not leave his side and was so disconsolate that he hardly knew how to comfort her. “There is an end to the path of a parent's love after all,” he said, “but this parting that so distresses you is very painful indeed.” He resolutely raised himself onto an armrest, although he was in imminent danger of losing his self-control. The Abbot of the Mountain and two attendant monks then administered the Precepts. The ceremony confirming his renunciation, the one at which he put on his religious robes, was extremely sad. Not even monks to whom the world was dross could restrain their tears on that day, and of course his daughters, his Consorts and Intimates, and ladies and gentlemen of all degrees gave themselves up to loud weeping, which greatly pained him, since it was all so unlike the peace and quiet to which he longed to retire—except that the young Princess still tugged at his heart. There was a constant stream of messengers from the palace and elsewhere to inquire after his health.

  Comb box

  His Grace of Rokujō came, too, when he learned that His Eminence was feeling a little better. Although he enjoyed the same emoluments and so on as a Retired Emperor, he did not insist on the degree of ceremony proper to one, and he kept his train discreet despite the high regard in which he was universally held. He rode there in as modest a carriage as usual, accompanied only by those senior nobles whose presence beside him was to be expected.

  His Eminence was very pleased that he had come at last, and forgot his suffering to receive him. Abandoning all formality, he had Genji brought in and seated beside him. The sad change that had come upon him overwhelmed Genji, who wept in sorrow and took some time to recover himself. “Ever since His Late Eminence was taken from me, I have understood that nothing lasts, and I have longed to do as you have just done,” he said; “yet I have instead only wavered feebly time after time, until I am ashamed of my faintheartedness when I see you before me like this. How often have I made up my mind that for someone like me nothing seriously stands in my way; and yet there are always so many things that make it unbearable after all actually to take that step.” He was inconsolable.

  His Eminence was too downhearted to be any braver, and it was with frequent tears that he began in a very weak voice to speak of things old and new. “For years now I have been expecting my time to come any day,” he said, “but you know, I took that step myself only because I was afraid that if I hesitated, I might never take it at all. Even so, I have too little time left to practice as I would like. No, I shall simply quiet my mind a while and call the Holy Name. Having so little to offer, I know all too well that I have lasted this long only because that desire has detained me, and it disturbs me to reflect that to this day I have done no practice at all.”

  He described his feelings over the years, and as he did so, he chanced to remark, “I hate to leave all my daughters, and the one for whom I have found no one yet worries me particularly. I simply do not know what to do.”

  His roundabout approach elicited Genji's compassion. Genji could not let the moment pass, for despite everything he was curious about her. “Yes,” he replied, “it is true, a Princess without personal sponsorship of some kind may find herself in an awkward position. The Heir Apparent, being what he is, inspires everywhere devout confidence that he is the wisest of imperial successors in this latter age, and if you were to explain her situation to him, he of course would never neglect her or treat her with disrespect; you would never need to worry about her future. However, he could do only so much and no more, and he could not then single her out for favor once he came to reign on his own, no matter how thoroughly the state of government accorded with his own wishes. The man chosen to provide for a woman in every way will merit far greater confidence when he and she commit themselves fully to each other and he undertakes to cherish and protect her in every circumstance that life imposes. If you ca
nnot give up your concern for her future, you should select suitable prospects and very discreetly decide to whom you wish to entrust her.”

  “I quite agree, but that is not at all easy to do. I gather from past example that a Sovereign, even one at the height of his powers, has usually preferred to select a gentleman with just that sort of arrangement in mind. I, on the other hand, am now soon to depart this life, and even if this is no time for me to set demanding requirements, she is the one among all those I will leave behind to whom I am most particularly attached. I therefore worry a great deal about her in all sorts of ways, and meanwhile my condition grows steadily worse, and days and months that will never return keep slipping by. That, you understand, is why I am so desperate. I know that my request can hardly be welcome, but I should like to ask you to take this young Princess under your special care and to work out on your own who would make a good match for her. The Counselor would have been well worth approaching when he was on his own, and I am disappointed that the Chancellor got to him first.”

  “My young lord the Counselor can be relied upon for loyal service, but he lacks experience, and I believe there are many things that he does not yet understand. Please forgive my presumption, but if I were to devote myself to her welfare, she would find her life unchanged from what you have made it. Alas, my only anxiety is that since I, too, have little time left, I may conceivably fail her.” With these words Genji accepted.

  At nightfall all His Eminence's gentlemen and the senior nobles with Genji were entertained in these two great lords' presence with a meal—a fasting one less formal than gracefully plain. They wiped the tears from their eyes to see His Eminence eating in so unfamiliar a manner from the bowl placed on the aloeswood meal stand before him.26 Many touching moments followed, but it would be tedious to write them all down. Genji withdrew late that night. Each gentleman received a reward appropriate to his station. The Counselor and the Master of the Household saw Genji home. The day's snow had made His Eminence's condition worse, and he felt very ill, but his mind was at peace now that the matter of his daughter was settled.