Excerpt from Arrowroot by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.
The village of
Natsumi, I decided, would be on the banks of the Natsumi River mentioned in the no play Two Ladies Shizuka: 'To the shore of Natsumi River aimlessly a woman came...' With these words, Shizuka's ghost appears. She says, 'I am distressed by the weight of my sins, copy a sutra for me.' Then, in the text of the dance that follows: Truly am I ashamed,
My heart cannot forget the past...
Think
That you see now
A woman picking grees
From the River Natsumi
In Yoshino.
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