Bijiyau.—Then we will away.
Nakamitsu.—Kauzhiyu! thou, too, shalt accompany thy master.
Kauzhiyu.—Your commands shall be obeyed.
[They depart from the temple, and arrive at Mitsunaka's palace.
Nakamitsu.—How shall I dare address my lord? I have brought hither his lordship Bijiyau.
Mitsunaka.—Well, Bijiyau! my only reason for sending thee up to the monastery was to help thy learning; and I would fain begin, by hearing thee read aloud from the Scriptures.
And with these words, and bidding him read on,
He lays on ebon desk before his son
The sacred text, in golden letters writ.
Bijiyau.—But how may he who never bent his wit
To make the pencil trace Asaka's[163] line
Spell out one letter of the book divine?
In vain, in vain his sire's behest he hears:—
Nought may he do but choke with idle tears.
Mitsunaka.—Ah! surely 'tis that, being my child, he respecteth the Scriptures too deeply, and chooseth not to read them except for purposes of devotion. What of verse-making, then?
Mitsunaka.—And music?[Bijiyau makes no answer.