“The Tale of the Old Man” in brief summary
Not nowadays, but for a long time old Taketori lived, wandered through the mountains and dales, chopped bamboo and made baskets and cages from them. And called him Taketori – the one who chops the bamboo. One day old Taketori went into the very depths of the bamboo thicket and saw: the radiance was pouring from one tree, and looking – what a marvel! In the depths of the bamboo stem a child shines – a little girl, only three inches tall.
“It is visible, it is destined to her to become my daughter”, – the old man has told and has taken the girl home. She was unusually beautiful, but tiny, and she was put to sleep in a bird cage.
From that very moment as old Taketori goes to the forest, he will find a wonderful bamboo, in every joint there are golden coins. So he began to grow rich little by little. The tiny girl grew quickly and quickly and in three months turned into a wonderful girl. We made her an adult hairdo and dressed in an adult
People have heard about the incomparable beauty of Kaguya-heme, many of the bridegrooms of simple rank and noble rich fell in love with her from other people’s words and came to an unknown village, and only worked in vain and returned with nothing. But there were stubborn people that wandered day and night around her house, sent letters, composed plaintive love songs-there was no answer to their harassment. Alternating days and months, hot, waterless days were replaced by icy, snowy, but the five most persistent bridegrooms hoped with hope that Kaguya-heime should elect a wife for herself. And so old man Taketori addressed her: “My daughter, I am already over seventy, and in this world it has become so customary that men are wooing girls, and girls are getting married, their family multiplies, the house is flourishing.”
The bridegrooms also agreed that she had decided wisely, and Kaguya-hime, asked all the bridegrooms tasks. One prince, Ishitsukura, commanded her to bring from India a stone bowl in which the Buddha himself collected alms. Prince Kuramoti punished her to bring from the magical mountain Horay, that in the Eastern Ocean, a branch with a golden tree with pearl fruits. The right minister Abe-no Mimuradzi ordered a dress from far China woven from the coat of the Fire Mouse. Senior adviser Otomo no Miyuki to get her a stone, sparkling with five-colored fire, from the neck of the dragon. And the average counselor Isoonokami-no Maro should give her the test of swallow, which helps children easily give birth.
Heard about these tasks princes and dignitaries, sad and went home. Prince Isitsukuri began to puzzle how he should be, how to reach India, where that stone bowl is to be found. And he announced that he was going to India, and he disappeared from the people’s eyes. Three years later he took an old cup without thinking twice, that, all covered with soot, stood in the temple on the Black Hill, put it in a pouch of brocade, tied it to a branch of needle-shaped flowers and, with a poetic message, brought Kaguya-hime, a letter, and there it is written in verse: “I passed a lot / Deserts and seas, and rocks – I was looking for / This holy cup… / Day and night I did not peel off my horse, I did not peel off.” / I irrigated my blood. “
But the girl immediately saw that she did not come from the bowl of even a faint glow, and returned it with pejorative verses, and the prince threw the cup in front of the gate in heartache. Since then I went about such shameless proverbs: “Drink a cup of shame.”
Prince Kuramoti ordered Kaguya-heme to go to search for the golden branch with pearls on Mount Horay, and left the capital. He sailed on the ship to the Eastern Ocean, but three days later he secretly returned, built a house in a secret place, planted goldsmiths in it and ordered to make such a branch, as the Radiant Maiden wished. Three years later he pretended to return to the harbor after a long voyage. The prince put the branch in the road casket and took it as a gift from Kaguya-heme. The people went to hear that the prince brought a magic flower. Arriving at the house of the old man Taketori, the prince began to tell how he had worn the waves for four hundred days and how he landed on Mount Horai, entirely covered with gold and silver trees, how he broke off one branch and hurried home with her. And Taketori, in response to his story, laid down verses: “Day after day I looked for bamboo,
And he began to prepare a bedchamber for the young. But, as a sin, at this hour they arrived at Thacketori’s goldsmith’s house, that they had made a branch for the prince, demanding payment for their labors. As Kaguya-Hime heard about it, she returned the branch to the deceiver and drove the prince out with disgrace. Prince Kuramoti escaped to the mountains, and no one has ever seen him again. About these people say: “In vain he scattered the pearls of his eloquence.”
Right-wing minister Abe-no Mimuradzi, whom Kaguya-hime ordered to find for her dress woven from the coat of the Fire Mouse, wrote a letter to the Chinese guest Wang Qin asking him to buy this curiosity in China. The guest made a request and wrote that he found with great difficulty a dress in the temple of the Western mountains. The minister rejoiced and folded his arms and bowed to the Chinese land. The dress arrived in Japan on a ship in a precious casket, and it itself was densely azure color, the ends of wool – gold. It seemed to be an invaluable treasure. They cleaned this cloth not with water, but with flames, it did not burn in the fire, but it became even more beautiful. The minister went in a luxurious dress to the girl, tied the casket to a flowering branch, and tied the message to the branch: “I was afraid that in the fire / Love of my boundless / This wonderful outfit will burn, / But here it is, take it!
But Kaguya-hime, wanting to test the groom, threw a precious dress into the fire, and p-times! – it burned to the ground. Kaguya-himee, overjoyed, returned the empty box to her minister from the attire and put a letter in it: “Because you knew in advance that there is no residue in the flame / This brave outfit will burn / Why, for so long / Did you feed the fire love? “
And the unfortunate bridegroom returned home with shame. They say about such people: “His case has burned, smoke has gone”.
Senior advisor Otomo-no Miyuki gathered his family members and said: “A precious stone flashes on the neck of the dragon. Whoever will get it, can ask for whatever it wants, Dragons dwell in the depths of mountains and seas, and flying out from there, sweep across the sky. and take off his precious stone. “
Servants and households obeyed and went in search. But, going out the gate, wandered in different directions with the words: “Such a whim will come to mind.” And the senior adviser, waiting for the servants, built a magnificent palace with gold and silver patterns for Kaguya-heme. Day and night he waited for his servants, but they did not appear, then he himself boarded the ship and set off on the seas. And then a terrible storm struck the ship with thunder and lightning, and the senior adviser thought: “All because I intended to kill the dragon, but now I will not touch the hair on him. The storm subsided a little, but the senior adviser was so worn out by fear that, although the ship safely stuck to his native shore, he looked like an evil demon: the wind blew him some sickness, his stomach swelled with a mountain, his eyes became like red plums. With difficulty dragged him to the house, and the servants immediately returned and told him: “You see how difficult it is to defeat the dragon and take away his multi-colored stone.” The people began to talk, and the word “cowardly” appeared, because the senior adviser always rubbed his red, like plums, eyes.
The average adviser Isoonokami-no Maro asked the servants the task: to find in the nests of swallows a shell that gives light births, and the servants said that it is necessary to follow the swallows at the cook, where there are a lot of them. Not one, so the other will start laying eggs, then you can get a healing shell. The average adviser ordered to build watchtowers and put servants on them, but the swallows were frightened and flew away. Then they decided to put one servant in the basket and raise it to the nests, only the swallow would dare to take the egg. But then the average adviser himself wanted to rise in the basket to the very roof where the swallows lived. On the ropes he was lifted to the very top, and he, putting his hands in the nest, groped for something hard and cried: “Found, pull.” And the servants tugged too hard on the rope, and it broke, and the average adviser fell directly onto the lid of a large three-legged boiling pot for cooking rice. Nasilu came to himself, unclasped his hand, and there was only a solid spool of bird droppings. And then he moaned pitifully: “Ah, this evil shell! On trouble, I have come to my rescue.” And people thought: “Oh, all this is the evil fate of wine. Everything is useless.” All day long the average counselor lamented that he did not get the cherished shell, and finally completely weakened and lost his life. Kaguya-hime heard about the end of the average counselor and sighed a little. and finally completely weakened and lost his life. Kaguya-hime heard about the end of the average counselor and sighed a little. and finally completely weakened and lost his life. Kaguya-hime heard about the end of the average counselor and sighed a little.
Finally, the emperor himself heard about Kaguya-heme and its incomparable beauty. He ordered his court lady to go to the house of old Taketori and find out everything about the Radiant Maiden. The court lady wanted to look at the young lady herself, but she flatly refused to obey the emperor’s messenger, and she had to return to the palace with nothing. Then the emperor called for old Taketori and ordered him to persuade Kaguya-hime to appear at the court. But the Radiant Maiden flatly refused. Then the Emperor set out to go hunting in those places where the old man’s house was located, and it seemed as if by chance he met Kaguya-heme. The emperor went hunting, entered, without any intention, into the house of Taketori and saw a girl shining with unspeakable beauty. Though she closed herself quickly with her sleeve, but managed to see her emperor and exclaimed in ecstasy: “
Kaguya-hime did not want to obey and begged-begged not to take her to the palace, saying that she was not a man, but a being from another world. But they gave the palanquin, and only wanted to put Kaguya-heme in it, as it began to melt, to melt – and one shadow from it remained, And then the emperor stepped back – and she at once took on the same form. Removing to the palace, the emperor with tears in his eyes folded: “The moment of parting has come, / But I hesitate hesitating… / Ah, I feel my feet / My will is disobedient, / As you, Kaguya-Hime!”
And she sent him back: “Under a poor rural roof, / Overgrown with wild grass, / My early years have passed. / My heart is not beckoning / In the high royal palace.”
So they continued to exchange sad messages for three years. Then people began to notice that every time during the full moon Kaguya-hime becomes pensive and sad, and did not advise her to look at the lunar disk for a long time. But she kept looking and looking, and our world seemed dull to her. But in the dark nights she was cheerful and carefree. One day, on the fifteenth night of the eighth month, when the moon became the brightest in the year, she told her parents with tears that she was actually a resident of the lunar kingdom and was driven to earth to atone for sin, and now it’s time to return. There, in the lunar capital, my mother and father are waiting for me, but I know how you will mourn, and I do not enjoy returning to my native land, but I’m sad.
The emperor learned that Kozyu-heme would be visited by the celestials and carried her to the moon, and ordered the chiefs of the six regiments of the imperial guard to guard the Radiant virgin. Old Taketori hid Kaguya-hime in the closet, the troops surrounded the house, but at the Mouse’s hour on the fifteenth night of the eighth moon the whole house lit up with radiance, unknown heavenly beings descended on the clouds, and neither arrows nor swords could stop them. All the locked doors swung open by themselves, and Kaguya-hime left the house, bursting into tears. It was a pity she was to leave her adoptive parents. The Celestial offered her an outfit of bird feathers and a drink of immortality; she, knowing that she had to put on this dress, how she would lose everything human, wrote a letter to the emperor and with a drink of immortality sent: “I’ve been apart for a moment, / I’ll put on / Feathered clothes, / But you remembered me – / And my heart cries. “
Then Kaguya-hime sat in a flying chariot and, accompanied by hundreds of messengers, flew into the sky. A sorrowful emperor carried a vessel with a drink of immortality to Mount Fuji and lit it; and it burns there until now.
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