Spring began on the seashore of Suruga. Delicate greenery enlivened the bamboo thickets. A pink cloud quietly descended from the sky onto the branches of the blossoming cherry trees. The pine forests wafted with the scent of spring. It was quiet on the shore, only the sea rumbled. Barely audible sounds came from afar. Perhaps it was the song of rustling water, perhaps the sound of the awakening wind, perhaps the melody of floating clouds.
Unprecedented, gentle music intensified and then died down, and the sounds resembled the sound of the sea surf; Slowly, imperceptibly, the music grew closer and closer. From behind the top of Mount Fuji, a snow-white cloud could be seen descending to the ground.
The music came closer and closer. And suddenly a sincere, clear voice sang a song that all breathed the peace and tranquility of the monthly radiance. A white, feathery cloud rushed towards the seashore. For one moment it rested on the seashore and then melted... ?, ...A young girl in a sparkling robe stood by the sea. She held a heart-shaped instrument in her hands, and while her fingers touched the strings, she sang a heavenly song. She was wearing a robe of feathers - white without a single mark, like the chest of a wild swan. The young maiden looked into a distant lake. Then she headed towards the pine forest that bordered the seashore. Birds fluttered around her. They sat on her shoulders and leaned their soft heads against her cheeks. She gently stroked them, and the birds, happy, flew away from her. The young maiden hung her robe on the branches of a pine tree and went to plunge into the sea.
It was noon; one fisherman sat down under a pine tree to have lunch. Suddenly he noticed a dazzling white robe.
“Perhaps this is a gift from the gods!” - said the fisherman Guy-Ruko, approaching him.
And the dress was so fragrant, so soft that he was afraid to touch it - but, in the end, he took it off. Its feathers were wonderfully woven, and delicate, curved wings adorned its shoulders.
“I’ll take it home,” thought the fisherman, “and happiness will visit us.”
But at this time the young maiden returned from the sea. The fisherman did not hear the sound of her steps until she stood in front of him.
And suddenly her gentle voice rang out: “The robe belongs to me!” Give it to me, I beg you!
The fisherman stood silently, as if struck by thunder, because he had never seen such a graceful creature. She seemed out of this world. And he said:
- What is your name, wonderfully beautiful maiden? And where are you from? Then she answered:
“Ah, I am one of the young maidens who serve the moon.” I come with peaceful news to the ocean. And I whispered in his ear about the low tide and now I must return to heaven again.
But Guy-Ruko objected:
“I’d like to see you dance before you fly away!”
Virgo Luna replied:
- Give me the feather robe, and I will dance the heavenly dance! The fisherman began to resist:
“Dance,” he said, “then I will give you the robe.” The entire sparkling young maiden exclaimed angrily:
- Evil spirits will take you to their kingdom if you doubt the words of the goddess! I can't dance without my clothes. Every feather on it is a gift from a heavenly bird. Their love, their faith carries me through the air.
And when she said these words, the fisherman was ashamed and said:
“I acted against my conscience, forgive me!..” and handed her the robe, and the Maiden of the Moon put on it.
And she rose from the ground, touched the strings and sang. The sounds of her singing were pure and inexpressibly beautiful. It was her farewell song to the land and sea. When she finished it, she began to play a cheerful song with trills and began to dance. For moments she lightly touched the surface of the quickly foaming sea, then with her small foot she touched the top of a pine tree as high as the sky. And then she would rush past the fisherman and smile as the grass rustled under her feet; she flew through the air around the trees, between the bamboo thickets, and under the branches of the cherry blossoms. And the music did not stop, and the maiden danced without ceasing, and Guy-Ruko admired her, full of surprise and admiration, because it seemed to him that this was a wonderfully beautiful dream...
But suddenly the cheerful music stopped. And the dance stopped. And then the girl began to sing about the monthly light and the silence of the evening. And at the same time she circled through the air, slowly at first, then faster and faster, and she swam away from there over the forests to the distant mountains.
The music still sounded in the fisherman’s ears, and the maiden was carried away further and further. Guy-Ruko looked after her while her snow-white figure could still be distinguished. But the wind still carried the light sounds of the song until they - one after another - died down completely.
And the fisherman was alone again, alone with the splash of the sea and the scent of pine trees.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru