So now at once
Meet with your father, see him face to face
[Kagekiyo keeps silence]
HITOMARU
Pray, it is I, I who have come to you.
Cruel! The rain, the wind, the dew and frost
I minded not along that distant road,
While coming to you! And all this, alas,
Becomes as nothing! Does a Father’s love
Depend upon the nature of the child?[37]
Ah, heartless!
KAGEKIYO
Up till now I hoped to hide,
But now I am found out I am ashamed.
To hide my fleeting[38] self there is no place.
[To Hitomaru]
If, in thy flowering form thou shouldst proclaim
That we are child and parent, then thy name
Thou wouldst announce,[39] and when I think on this
I am resolved we part. Pray do not feel
Thy father harsh and this mere heartlessness!
CHORUS
Ah, truly is it sad! In olden times
I welcomed even strangers when they called,
And was displeased if they should pass me by.
And now its recompense! How sad it is!
To think that I had hoped that my own child
Should not have called on me. Alas, how sad!
When in their warships were the Taira clan,
When in their warships were the Taira clan,
So many were there that their shoulders touched
And in the crowded space the knees were crossed.
There scarce was room to live[40] beneath the moon—
And Kagekiyo more than any else
Was on the flagship indispensable.
His fellow officers and all the rest
Though rich in valour and in tactic powers
He did o’ertop. And as the ship is steered
By him who holds the rudder, so did he
Lead in the army and no difference
Ever occurred between him and his men.
All envied him, but now he is most like
A Unicorn, infirm with hoary age
And rather worse than a mere useless horse.[41]