1
00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:09,800
The Reconciliation by Lefkadio Hearne. There
was a young samurai of Kyoto who had

2
00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:14,080
been reduced to poverty by the ruin
of his lord, and found himself obliged

3
00:00:14,199 --> 00:00:18,199
to leave his home and take service
with the governor of a distant province.

4
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,399
Before quitting the capital, this samurai
divorced his wife, a good and beautiful

5
00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:29,039
woman, under the belief that he
could better obtain promotion by another alliance.

6
00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,479
He then married the daughter of a
family of some distinction, and took her

7
00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:37,359
with him to the district whither he
had been called. But it was in

8
00:00:37,399 --> 00:00:41,719
the time of the thoughtlessness of youth
and the sharp experience of want, that

9
00:00:41,799 --> 00:00:46,280
the samurai could not understand the worth
of the affections so lightly cast away.

10
00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:51,200
His second marriage did not prove a
happy one. The character of his new

11
00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:55,679
wife was hard and selfish, and
he soon found every cause to think with

12
00:00:55,799 --> 00:01:00,640
regret of Kyoto days. Then he
discovered that he still loved his first wife,

13
00:01:00,679 --> 00:01:04,599
loved her more than he could ever
love the second, and he began

14
00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:11,120
to feel how unjust and thankless he
had been. Gradually his repentance deepened into

15
00:01:11,159 --> 00:01:15,719
a remorse that left him no peace
of mind. Memories of the woman he

16
00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:21,000
had wronged. Her gentle speech,
her smiles, her dainty, pretty ways,

17
00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:27,079
her faultless patience constantly haunted him.
Sometimes in dreams he saw her at

18
00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,879
her loom, weaving, as when
she toiled night and day to help him

19
00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:36,359
during the years of their distress.
More often he saw her kneeling alone in

20
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:40,719
the desolate little room where he had
left her, veiling her tears with her

21
00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:45,439
poor worn sleeve. Even in the
hours of official duty, his thoughts would

22
00:01:45,439 --> 00:01:49,359
wander back to her. Then he
would ask himself how she was living,

23
00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:53,719
what she was doing. Something in
his heart assured him that she could not

24
00:01:53,799 --> 00:01:57,640
accept another husband and that she would
never refuse to pardon him, and he

25
00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:01,640
secretly resolved to seek her out as
soon as he could return to Kyoto,

26
00:02:02,079 --> 00:02:07,079
then to beg her forgiveness, to
take her back, to do everything that

27
00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:12,960
a man could do to make atonement. But the years went by. At

28
00:02:13,039 --> 00:02:17,240
last, the governor's official term expired
and the samurai was free. Now I

29
00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:22,120
will go back to my dear one, he vowed to himself. Ah,

30
00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,080
what a cruelty, what a folly
to have divorced her. He sent his

31
00:02:25,159 --> 00:02:30,080
second wife to her own people.
She had given him no children, and

32
00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:34,479
hurrying to Kyoto, he went at
once to seek his former companion, not

33
00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,360
allowing himself even the time to change
his traveling garb. When he reached the

34
00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:43,000
street where she used to live,
it was late in the night, the

35
00:02:43,159 --> 00:02:46,199
night of the tenth day of the
ninth month, and the city was silent

36
00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:51,400
as a cemetery. But a bright
moon made everything visible, and he found

37
00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,599
the house without difficulty. It had
a deserted look. Tall weeds were growing

38
00:02:55,639 --> 00:03:00,280
on the roof. He knocked at
the sliding doors and no one answered.

39
00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:06,400
Then, finding that the doors had
not been fastened from within, he pushed

40
00:03:06,439 --> 00:03:12,360
them open and entered. The front
room was mathless and empty. A chilly

41
00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,639
wind was blowing through crevices in the
planking, and the moon shone through a

42
00:03:15,719 --> 00:03:21,199
ragged break in the wall of the
alcove. Other rooms presented a like forlorn

43
00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:28,159
condition. The house, to all
seeming, was unoccupied. Nevertheless, the

44
00:03:28,159 --> 00:03:31,400
samurai determined to visit one other apartment
at the further end of the dwelling,

45
00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:37,719
a very small room that had been
his wife's favorite resting place. Approaching the

46
00:03:37,759 --> 00:03:40,960
sliding screen that closed it, he
was startled to perceive a glow within.

47
00:03:42,759 --> 00:03:46,919
He pushed the screen aside and uttered
a cry of joy, for he saw

48
00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:52,759
her there, sewing by the light
of a paper lantern. Her eyes at

49
00:03:52,759 --> 00:03:55,319
the same instant met his own,
and with a happy smile, she greeted

50
00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:00,960
him, asking, only when did
you come back to Kyoto? How did

51
00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,199
you find your way here to me? Through all those black rooms? The

52
00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:09,439
years had not changed her. Still
she seemed as fair and young as in

53
00:04:09,479 --> 00:04:14,319
his fondest memory of her. But
sweeter than any memory, there came to

54
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,600
him the music of her voice,
with its trembling of pleased wonder. Then

55
00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:24,240
joyfully he took his place beside her
and told her all how deeply he repented

56
00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:28,439
his selfishness, how wretched he had
been without her, how constantly he had

57
00:04:28,439 --> 00:04:32,000
regretted her, how long he had
hoped and planned to make amends. Caressing

58
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:38,839
her the while and asking her forgiveness
over and over again. She answered him

59
00:04:38,959 --> 00:04:44,040
with loving gentleness, according to his
heart's desire, entreating him to cease all

60
00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:47,600
self reproach. It was wrong,
She said that he should have allowed himself

61
00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:51,279
to suffer on her account. She
had always felt that she was not worthy

62
00:04:51,319 --> 00:04:56,920
to be his wife. She knew
that he had separated from her, notwithstanding

63
00:04:57,079 --> 00:05:00,160
only because of poverty, and while
he lived with her, he had always

64
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,600
been kind, and she had never
ceased to pray for his happiness. But

65
00:05:04,759 --> 00:05:09,879
even if there had been a reason
for speaking of Amen's, this honorable visit

66
00:05:09,879 --> 00:05:14,240
would be ample Amend's. What greater
happiness than this to see him again,

67
00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,959
though it were only for a moment, Only for a moment, he answered,

68
00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:21,560
with a glad laugh, say,
rather, for the time of seven

69
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:27,839
existences, my loved one, unless
you forbid, I am coming back to

70
00:05:27,879 --> 00:05:32,800
live with you, always, always, always, Nothing shall ever separate us

71
00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,959
again. Now I have means and
friends, we need not fear poverty.

72
00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,879
Tomorrow my goods will be brought here, and my servants will come to wait

73
00:05:41,959 --> 00:05:46,319
upon you, and we shall make
this house beautiful tonight, he added apologetically.

74
00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,240
I came thus late, without even
changing my dress, only because of

75
00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:56,120
the longing I had to see you, and to tell you this. She

76
00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:00,439
seemed greatly pleased by these words,
and in her turn, she told about

77
00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,680
all that had happened in Kyoto since
the time of his departure, excepting her

78
00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:09,920
own sorrows, of which she sweetly
refused to speak. They chatted far into

79
00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:14,199
the night. Then she conducted him
to a warmer room facing south, a

80
00:06:14,319 --> 00:06:17,279
room that had been their bridal chamber
in former time. Have you no one

81
00:06:17,319 --> 00:06:20,639
in the house to help you,
he asked, as she began to prepare

82
00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:26,319
the couch for him. No,
she answered, laughing cheerfully. I could

83
00:06:26,319 --> 00:06:30,399
not afford a servant, so I
have been living all alone. You will

84
00:06:30,439 --> 00:06:34,319
have plenty of servants tomorrow, he
said, Good servants, and everything else

85
00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:39,879
that you need. They lay down
to rest, not to sleep. They

86
00:06:39,879 --> 00:06:43,680
had too much to tell each other, and they talked of the past and

87
00:06:43,759 --> 00:06:49,879
the present and the future until the
dawn was gray. Then, involuntarily the

88
00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:57,160
samurai closed his eyes and slept.
When he awoke, the daylight was streaming

89
00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:00,839
through the chinks of the sliding shutters, and he found himself, to his

90
00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,920
utter amazement, lying upon the naked
boards of a moldering floor. Had he

91
00:07:04,959 --> 00:07:11,879
only dreamed a dream? No,
she was there, she slept. He

92
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:18,519
bent above her and looked and shrieked, for the sleeper had no face before

93
00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:23,959
him. Wrapped in its grave sheet, only lay the corpse of a woman,

94
00:07:24,519 --> 00:07:29,480
a corpse so wasted that little remained
save the bones. And the long,

95
00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:34,879
black, tangled hair. Slowly as
he stood, shuddering and sickening in

96
00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:41,600
the sun, the icy horror yielded
to a despair so intolerable, a pain

97
00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:46,240
so atrocious, that he clucked at
the mocking shadow of a doubt. Feigning

98
00:07:46,279 --> 00:07:48,720
ignorance of the neighborhood, he ventured
to ask his way to the house in

99
00:07:48,759 --> 00:07:53,560
which his wife had lived. There
is no one in that house, said

100
00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,480
the person questioned. It used to
belong to the wife of a samurai who

101
00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:01,000
left the city several years ago.
He'd Worcester in order to marry another woman

102
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:05,319
before he went away, and she
fretted a great deal, and so became

103
00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:09,439
sick. She had no relatives in
Kyoto and nobody to care for her,

104
00:08:09,879 --> 00:08:13,800
and she died in the autumn of
the same year, on the tenth day

105
00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:20,560
of the ninth month, end of
the reconciliation