human
Mistress, you are sad, said the attendant.
gpt
Shall I strike the koto-strings, and sing a song to cheer you?
human
What? cried the maid,
gpt
Fatkoura no longer loves music? Has she then forgotten that she owes the light of day to it? For when the Sun-goddess, enraged with the gods, withdrew into a cavern, it was by letting her hear divine music for the first time that she was led back to heaven!
human
Shall I grind some ink for you? Your paper has long remained as stainless as the snow on Mount Fusi. If you have a grief, cast it into the mould of verse, and you will be rid of it.
gpt
No, Tika; love is not to be got rid of; it is a burning pain, which devours one by day and by night, and never sleeps.
human
Unhappy love, perhaps; but you are beloved, mistress!
gpt
I know not what serpent hidden in the depths of my heart tells me that I am not.
human
What! said Tika in amaze,
gpt
Yes; and he vanished without exchanging a single word with me, Tika! added Fatkoura, seizing the young girl's wrists in a nervous grasp.
human
He did not even look at me.
gpt
Impossible! said Tika;
human
He has; and I believed him, because I was so eager to believe. But now I believe him no longer.
gpt
Why?
human
Because if he loved me he would have married me long since, and taken me to his estates.
gpt
But the affection which he bears his master keeps him at the Court of Osaka!
human
So he says; but is that the language of love I What would I nob sacrifice for him!... Alas! I thirst for his presence! His face, so haughty, and yet so gentle, floats before my eyes! I long to fix it, but it escapes me! Ah! if I might but spend a few happy months with him, I would gladly kill myself afterwards, lulling myself to sleep with my love; and my past happiness would be a soft winding-sheet for me.