検非違使に問われたる媼の物語

Yes, that corpse is my daughter's husband, a man now done for. But he was no townsman of the capital. He was a retainer of the Wakasa provincial government. His name was Takehiko of Kanazawa, and he was twenty-six years of age. Nay, his was a gentle disposition, so there is no reason he should have earned any grudge.

My daughter, you ask? Her name is Masago, and she is nineteen. She is a bold woman, scarcely yielding to any man, yet she has never known a man other than Takehiko. Her face is of a swarthy complexion, a small melon-seed shape, with a mole at the outer corner of her left eye.

Yesterday Takehiko set out for Wakasa together with my daughter, but that it should come to this—what cruel fate is this? Yet what has become of my daughter, I know not. Though I resign myself to the loss of my son-in-law, this alone weighs upon me without cease. I beg you, this is an old crone's plea for all her remaining days: though you must part the very grasses and trees, seek out my daughter's whereabouts. Above all, hateful is that brigand, called Tajomaru or some such name. Not only my son-in-law, but my daughter as well…… (Here she breaks into weeping, and words fail her.)

× × ×

“Stories of the world, in your language.”