Murder of a Masseur
24th. Clear. Frost.
Around seven in the evening, on Fifth Street in Aioi-cho where I live, someone stabbed a blind masseur with a spear and ran away. Some of us immediately gathered around the victim and asked, " Where do you live? " But he barely finished saying, " I live in Yokoami " before he died. Since this past spring, I'd heard rumors that this kind of outlandish thing happened from time to time, but when I saw it right in front of my eyes, I felt terror, pity, and bitterness, and a chill ran down my spine.
If he had been a normal person, someone said, he could have grappled with his attacker. But simply because he was blind, he lost his life with the unexpectedness of a bird flying into a net in the dark or a fish getting poisoned in a stream. We shed tears, though we were all strangers. The attacker was not a thief who was after the man's valuables, nor was he trying to avenge some grievance. And yet, the fact that this kind of calamity takes place makes me think the Demon King or someone like that is trying to throw the world into confusion, and I feel barely alive, auspicious though the present reign may be. We are just onlookers this time, we said to each other, but we've no assurance that we won't meet with the same kind of fate tomorrow! We felt particularly chilled at heart that night:
Wait and see, the murderer too will turn into dew on the grass
Around seven in the evening, on Fifth Street in Aioi-cho where I live, someone stabbed a blind masseur with a spear and ran away. Some of us immediately gathered around the victim and asked, " Where do you live? " But he barely finished saying, " I live in Yokoami " before he died. Since this past spring, I'd heard rumors that this kind of outlandish thing happened from time to time, but when I saw it right in front of my eyes, I felt terror, pity, and bitterness, and a chill ran down my spine.
If he had been a normal person, someone said, he could have grappled with his attacker. But simply because he was blind, he lost his life with the unexpectedness of a bird flying into a net in the dark or a fish getting poisoned in a stream. We shed tears, though we were all strangers. The attacker was not a thief who was after the man's valuables, nor was he trying to avenge some grievance. And yet, the fact that this kind of calamity takes place makes me think the Demon King or someone like that is trying to throw the world into confusion, and I feel barely alive, auspicious though the present reign may be. We are just onlookers this time, we said to each other, but we've no assurance that we won't meet with the same kind of fate tomorrow! We felt particularly chilled at heart that night:
Wait and see, the murderer too will turn into dew on the grass
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