Nor did they speak as they went. They
listened, nor could they say for what.
Then, when they had gone a very great way, the track ceased
suddenly, as if cut off, and at this spot, under the pines furred
with snow, His Majesty became aware of a perfume so sweet that it
was as though all the flowers of the earth haunted the place with
their presence, and a music like the biwa of Semimaru was heard
in the tree tops. This sounded far off like the whispering of
rain when it falls in very small leaves, and presently it died
away, and a voice followed after, singing, alone in the woods, so
that the silence appeared to have been created that such a music
might possess the world. So the Emperor stopped instantly, and
the Dainagon behind him and he heard these words.
"In me the Heavenly Lotos grew,
The fibres ran from head to feet,
And my heart was the august Blossom.
Therefore the sweetness flowed through the veins of my flesh,
And I breathed peace upon all the world,
And about me was my fragrance shed
That the souls of men should desire me.
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