Beat all the moor, surround its ev'ry part,
Whose rage to 'scape avails no magic art;
Swift fly the dogs, and swift the arrows fly
And, panting, stricken, I sink down and die..
But yet my ghost (though, like the morning dew
'Twas wrapt away from grosser human view)
Ceas'd not to haunt this distant des'late moor,

And from the Death-Stone wield its murd'rous

pow'r,

Till thou, great Buddha! send'st thy priest this

way

To bid religion reassert her sway.

"I swear, O man of God! I swear," she cries,
"To thee whose blessing wafts me to the skies,
I swear a solemn oath, that shall endure
Firm as the Death-Stone standing on the moor,
That from this hour I'm virtue's child alone!"
Thus spake the ghoul, and vanished 'neath the
stone.*

*The good priest's blessing does not seem, however, to have been effectual; for a poisonous stream still issues from the Death-Stone thrice every day.

SCENE.-Inn at the village of Kañtamu in China.
TIME.-Early in the eighth century.

Rosei. Lost in this pathless world of woe,
Where nothing is, but only seems,

How may the weary pilgrim know

His waking moments from his dreams?

My name is Rosei, and I dwell in the land of Shiyoku. Though born to mortal estate,† I have hitherto idled my life away without so much as seeking to tread the Buddhist path. But they tell me that on Mount Yauhi in the land of Ibara there dwells a learned and venerable priest; and to Mount Yauhi do

* Shiyoku and Ibara are the Japanese names of two feudal states in ancient China, whose proper Chinese appellations are respectively Shuh and Ch'u. Kañtamu, in like manner, should be Han-tan. This latter place, in the Japanese original, gives its name to the piece. But the expression "the pillow of Kañtamu" having become proverbial in the sense rendered by Calderon's famous title, the latter has been borrowed as both more euphonious and more expressive.

A rare boon; for, according to Buddhist views, there are many more chances in favour of one's being born as a lower animal. He who obtains this inestimable privilege should show himself worthy of it by ardently following in the footsteps of the great reformer Shiyaka Muni.

I now turn my steps to search after the one great thing needful.

Behind the clouds, in distance veil'd,

The well-known landscape fades from sight,
While endless peaks my feet have scal'd
This many a weary day and night.

Chorus. On hill and moor the setting sun
Full oft has left him desolate;

But half his course at length is run
What time he sees Kañtamu's gate.

[He arrives at the village of Kañtamu.

Rosei. What then? and is this the celebrated pillow of which I have so often heard tell? Heaven must surely have placed it in my way to bestow on me in a dream a taste of that world whose portals I am about to close for ever behind me.*

Chorus. 'Tis but a wayside inn to spend the hour

Of burning noon or wait the passing show'r;
But he would fain through some strange dream be
led,

And on the magic pillow lays his head.

Envoy. How shall I venture to address thee? I have a message for thee, Rosei.

* Not by death, but by the renunciation of all earthly vanities, which cannot but follow on my hearing the exposition of the law by the hermit of Mount Yauhi.

Rosei. Who, then, art thou?

Envoy. An ambassador sent by the Emperor of the land of Ibara to tell thee that 'tis his imperial desire

to relinquish the throne in thy favour.

Rosei. Incredible! and for what cause should I be thus raised to the supreme dignity?

It

Envoy. Far be it from me to scan the reasons. must doubtless be because thou possessest the capacity worthily to rule the world. But tarry not, tarry not! Deign to enter the palanquin sent to bear thee to the capital.

Rosei. What may this strange message mean?
Sure th' imperial palanquin,

Strewn with gems of radiant hue
Sparkling like the evening dew,
For my limbs was ne'er design'd.

Chorus. Strange to leave the world behind!

Rosei. But perchance of highest heav'n
To scale the heights to me is giv'n.

Chorus. Onward the palanquin they bear
In jewell'd flow'ry radiance fair;
And he (unwitting that his pow'r
Forms but the dream of one short hour)
Outsoars the clouds * to find a throne
'Mid scenes of beauty past comparison

* See note to the "Death-Stone," p. 149.

I.

Chorus. For ne'er in those old vasty halls imperial,*
Bath'd in the moonbeams bright,

Or where the dragon soars on clouds ethereal,
Was ought like this to entrance the sight:

With golden sand and silvern pebbles white
Was strewn the floor;

And at the corners four,

Through gates inlaid

With diamonds and jade,

Pass'd throngs whose vestments were of radiant

light,

So fair a scene,

That mortal eye might ween

It scann'd the very heav'ns' unknown delight.†
Here countless gifts the folk came bearing,

Precious as myriad coins of finest gold;

And there, the lesser with the greater sharing,

Advanc'd the vassals bold,

Their banners to display

That paint the sky with colours gay,

While rings the air as had the thunder roll'd.

Rosei. And in the east (to please the monarch's will), Full thirty fathoms high,

*The references in this line and in the next line but one are to two famous ancient Chinese palaces.

66

The particular heaven mentioned in the Japanese text is that entitled Kikeñzhiyau, or the castle joyful to behold," the capital where Indra sits enthroned.