“First give me my robe that my dance may be more perfect,” she said.
“No, no, my beauty,” he answered, “for then you will fly away and I shall never see you dance.”
“Fie upon you, base mortal! Deceit was born of man; the heavens know it not!” she said in displeasure.
Then the fisherman was much ashamed and gave her the robe; and she danced for him a dance of wonderful grace and beauty, such as mortal had never dreamed of before. He wished to gaze forever at the lovely, floating being. The moonlight shone upon her, bathing her in silvery light, beneath the feathery bamboo, with snow-capped Fuji above the clouds, calm and serene.
While she danced, visions of heaven came to the fisherman, and when she was wafted from his sight by a snowy cloud, he sank upon the ground and, covering his face with his hands, he wept bitterly, as he cried, “Alas! alas! Nevermore will things of earth seem fair!”
“SHE WAS WAFTED FROM HIS SIGHT”
Footnotes
[6] In Japan a kite is always sent up from a house where a little boy is born.