4
Eminent Authors of Japan
- that it is very hard for you, and …
- Okuni.—Women are weak … it must be a burden for you to have a weak woman with you now?
- Gohei.—No, mistress, you must not say that. It is only two days since you set out after your long illness, so very naturally you will get easily exhausted. If I had had any consideration, I should have pressed you to stay two or three days longer at Utsunomiya.
- Okuni.—No, that would not have been right, for though I am a little weak, we cannot afford to waste any more time … for I have been ill these two months at Utsunomiya, and …
- Gohei.—You are right, but though you are very courageous at heart, you cannot help extreme weakness after such a long illness. Moreover we have walked some fifteen or sixteen miles to-day.
- Okuni.—Yes, we have walked and walked, yet we never seem to come to any village, … you say this is the wilderness of Nasuno, … ah, what a lonely place it is!
- Gohei.—I am told that beyond this wilderness there is a district called Oshu. If we go on for two or three days more across this wilderness, we shall come to the barrier of Shirakawa.
- Okuni.—Oh, the barrier of Shirakawa! I often heard that name when I was very young … when I was seven or eight years old. My grandmother used to talk about it.
- Gohei.—Yes, we are going to that distant barrier, nay,
