*
５
The monk remembered the event in the morning as if it had
happened yesterday. In the morning, the monk, who is priest
of the temple, opened the wooden lattice door of the dunge-
on regardless he, the monk himself, would risk punishment if
he let the culprit escape from the dungeon. And the monk
was determined to commit suicide by sword in front of the
dungeon, where cherry flower leafs are scattered, after
he set the culprit free, for apology to the lord. But the
culprit did not come out of the dungeon. And he is still
in this dungeon. Why did the culprit not come out of the
dungeon? The culprit did not tell the monk the reason he
did not come out then and afterwards.
So, the monk could only guess the reason. And he thought
that the culprit did not dare to come out because the cul-
prit was worried what would happen to the monk, who is the
priest of this temple, in the beginning. The monk was conv-
inced that the culprit did not come out of the dungeon be-
cause it was evident the lord would persecute the monk if
the monk disobeyed the lord by releasing the culprit and
the culprit knew the monk is determined to kill himself.
The monk could not think of other reasons. And he was
moved by the clprit's heart. However, as time passed,
the monk reached to another thought. The monk wondered
if the culprit had other reasons when he did not come
out of the dungeon.
The culprit must have worried about the monk's fate,
of course. But it was not the only reason. The monk has
noticed it was not all of the reasons.
The monk wondered whether the culprit stayed in the
dungeon not because he worried about the monk's fate
but because he chose to live in the dungeon as his
own choice. In other words, the monk wondered that the
culprit might have chosen being in the dungeon not as his
unhappy, miserable, fate but as his spontaneous choice.
It was nothing but the culprit's defiance. The culprit did
not escape from the cruel fate the lord gave on him.
Far from it, the culprit chose the cruel fate by himself
and made the monk notice his choice of fight against the
lord by living in the dungeon.--the monk has noticed it.
However, enen though the monk has noticed such truth,
or even though spring has come again to remind him of
the morning, the monk never asked the culprit about
the morning he attempted to release the culprit, of cour-
se. Instead, the monk continued to come and go between
his temple and this dungeon in the graveyard every mor-
ning. And he reported the culprit that sakura(cherry
blossoms) began to bloom outside of his dungeon in
every spring, to share the pleasure with the culprit.
(To be continued)
*
