Sei Shonagon - The Cat Who Lived in the Palace

[shinmai]

The cat who lived in the Palace had been awarded the
head-dress of nobility and was called Lady Myobu. She was a very
pretty cat, and His Majesty saw to it that she was treated with the
greatest care. One day she wandered on to the verandah, and Lady Uma,
the nurse in charge of her, called out, 'Oh, you naughty thing! Please
come inside at once.' But the car paid no attention and went back to
basking sleepily in the sun. Intending to give her a scare, the nurse
called for the dog, Okinamaro.
'Okinamaro where are you?' she cried. 'Come here and bite Lady Myobu!'
The foolish Okinamaro, believing that the nurse was in earnest, rushed
at the cat, who, startled and terrified, ran behind the blind in the
Imperial Dining Room, where the Emperor happened to be sitting.
Greatly surprised, His Majesty picked up the cat and held her in his
arms. He summoned his gentlemen-in-waiting. When Tadataka, the
Chamberlain, appeared, His Majesty ordered that Okinamaro be chastised
and banished to Dog Island.
The attendants all started to chase the banished to Dog
Island. The attendants all started to chase the dog amid great
confusion. His Majesty also reproached Lady Uma. 'We shall have to
find a new nurse for our cat,' he told her. 'I no longer feel I can
count on you to look after her,' Lady Uma bowed; thereafter she no
longer appeared in the Emperor's presence.
The Imperial Guards quickly succeeded in catching Okinamaro
and drove him out of the Palace grounds. Poor Dog! He used to swagger
about so happily. Recently, on the third day of the Third Month, when
the First Secretary paraded him through the Palace grounds, Okinamaro
was adorned with garlands of willow leaves, peach blossoms on his
head, and cherry blossoms round his body. How could the dog imagined
that this would be his fate? We all felt sorry for him. 'When Her
Majesty was having her meals,' recalled one of the ladies in waiting,
'Okinamaro always used to be in attendance and sit opposite of us. How
I miss him!'
It was about noon a few days later after Okinamaro's
banishment, that we heard a dog howling fearfully. How could any dog
possibly cry so long? All the other dogs rushed out in excitement to
see what was happening. Meanwhile a woman who served as a cleaner in
the Palace latrines ran up to us. 'It's terrible,' she said. 'Two of
the Chamberlains are flogging a dog. They'll surely kill him. He's
being punished for having come back after he was banished. It's
Tadataka and Sanefusa who are beating him.' Obviously the victim was
Okinamaro. I was absolutely wretched and sent a servant to ask the men
to stop; but just then the howling finally ceased. 'He's dead,' one of
the servants informed me. 'They've thrown his body outside the gate.'
That evening, while we were sitting in the Palace bemoaning
Okinamaro's fate, a wretched-looking dog walked in; he was trembling
all over, and his body was fearfully swollen.
'Oh dear,' said one of ladies-in-waiting. 'Can this be
Okinamaro? We haven't seen any other dog like him recently, have we?'
We called to him by name, but the dog did not respond. Some of
us insisted that it was Okinamaro, others that it was not. 'Please
send for Lady Ukon,' said the Empress, hearing our discussion. 'She
will certainly be able to tell.' We immediately went to Ukon's room
and told her she was wanted on an urgent matter.'Is this Okinamaro?'
the Empress asked her pointing to the dog.
'Well,' said Ukon, 'it certainly looks like him, but I cannot
believe that this loathsome creature is really our Okinamaro. When I
call Okinamaro, he always used to come to me, wagging his tail. But
this dog does not react at all. No, it cannot be the same one. And
besides, wasn't Okinamaro beaten to death and his body thrown away?
How could any dog be alive after being flogged by two strong men?'
Hearing this, Her Majesty was very unhappy.
When it got dark, we gave the dog something to eat; but he
refused it, and we finally decided this could not be Okinamaro.
On the following morning I went to attend the Empress while her hair
was being dressed and she was performing her ablutions. I was holding
up the mirror for her when the dog we had seen on the previous evening
slunk into the room and crouched next to one of the pillars. 'Poor
Okinamaro!' I said. 'He had such a dreadful beating yesterday. How sad
to think he is dead! I wonder what body he has been born into this
time. Oh, how he must have suffered!'
At that moment the dog lying by the pillar started to shake
and tremble, and shed a flood of tears. It was astounding. So this
really was Okinamaro! On the previous night it was to avoid betraying
himself that he had refused to answer to his name. We were immensely
moved and pleased. 'Well, well, Okinamaro!' I said, putting down the
mirror. The dog stretched himself flat on the floor and yelped loudly,
so that the Empress beamed with delight. All the ladies gathered
round, and Her Majesty summoned Lady Ukon. When the Empress explained
what had happened, everyone talked and laughed with great excitement.
The news reached His Majesty, and he too came to the Empress's room.
'Its amazing,' he said with a smile, 'To think that even a dog has
such deep feelings!' When the Emperor's ladies-in-waiting heard the
story, they too came along in a great crowd. 'Okinamaro!' we called,
and this time the dog rose and limped about the room with his swollen
face. 'He must have a meal prepared for hi,.' I said. 'Yes,' said the
Empress, laughing happily, 'now that Okinamaro has finally told us who
he is.'
The Chamberlain, Tadataka, was informed, and he hurried along
the Table Room. 'Is it really true?' he asked. 'Please let me see for
myself.' I sent a maid to him with the following reply: 'Alas, I am
afraid that this is not the same dog after all.' 'Well,' answered
Tadataka, 'whatever you say, I shall sooner or later have the occasion
to see the animal. You won't be able to hide him from me
indefinitely.'
Before long, Okinamaro was granted an Imperial pardon and
returned to his happy state. Yet, even now, when I remember how he
whimpered and trembled in response to our sympathy, it strikes me as a
strange and moving scene; when people talk to me about it, I start
crying myself.

[Jin]

My goodness you must have been on some wonderful, MAGICAL drugs when you
wrote this.
--
"It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last
genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs - and
well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It
takes off a lot of anxiety."
- George Orwell, "Down and Out in Paris and London".

[Anthony J. Bryant]

Jin wrote:

> My goodness you must have been on some wonderful, MAGICAL drugs when you
> wrote this.

Just for the record, you do realize that for some odd reason this fellow is
block-quoting passages from The Pillow Book, right?

That in itself is odd enough, though. <G>

Tony

[shinmai]

On Sat, 14 Oct 2000 13:20:09 -0600, "Anthony J. Bryant"
<ajbr...@indiana.edu> wrote:

>Jin wrote:
>
>> My goodness you must have been on some wonderful, MAGICAL drugs when you
>> wrote this.
>

>Just for the record, you do realize that for some odd reason this fellow is
>block-quoting passages from The Pillow Book, right?
>
>That in itself is odd enough, though. <G>
>
>Tony
>

Only sharing some liturature some people might not have read.. It is a
good book.

[Anthony J. Bryant]

shinmai wrote:

>
>
> Only sharing some liturature some people might not have read.. It is a
> good book.

Indeed. It looses a little in the translation, though.

Tony

[shinmai]

It looses a lot in translation but some things cannot be helped. I
could post in the original Japanese but many people could not read it
then.