Japanese
The Song of the Stars Played by the Twin Stars|
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Japanese The Song of the Stars Played by the Twin Stars |
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Night concert played by celestial musicians Twin Stars play the Song of the Stars 
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Stars often play an important role in Kenji's works. Examples of this are "The Nighthawk Star" and "The Great Dipper of the Crows" in which a nighthawk and crows, creatures of this world, wish to become stars in heavens or pray to them. In contrast, "The Twin Stars" is a story about heavenly dwellers, the Twin Stars, the Scorpion Star and the Big Crow Star. In this tale, the twinkling of the stars in the cloudless night sky is the music played by the celestial musicians and singers on the grand stage that is the sky. Earthbound creatures, who gaze at the night sky, are the audience for this nightly concert.  The positions of the musicians and singers on this stage are fixed as are the constellations.
Chunse and Pose are the Twin Stars. They play their silver flutes all night long as an accompaniment to the singing stars. Kenji composed this Song of the Stars and it is a refreshing and charming melody suited to the silver flutes of the Twin Stars. One can just imagine the song Kenji heard in his mind as he viewed the twinkling of the stars. |
The fight between The Big Crow Star and The Scorpion |
The concert in the sky ends when the sun rises and darkness fades to light. The musicians and singers leave their positions on the heavenly stage and go off to amuse themselves. Trouble arises then because many of the celestial dwellers are an eccentric bunch. Chunse and Pose go to play at a spring in the western fields. The Big Crow Star and the Scorpion Star who also have come to this spring to drink, but, begin to fight. The Scorpion receives a deep gash to his head, and the Big Crow collapses after being stung by the Scorpion's poisonous stinger. "The Scorpion's blood gushes across the sky and forms a ghastly red cloud." The Twin Stars suck the poison out of the Big Crow and tend the Scorpion's wound, cleansing it with water from spring. They then carry the weak and unsteady Scorpion home to his position on the heavenly stage before night falls and the concert begins. As darkness approaches, the children below on Earth look up at the sky and exclaim in delight, "I see a star. I wish to live a long life." |
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| Opening of the celestial concert | Chunse and Pose are exhausted from their labors and only manage to return to the spring with the help of a lightening bolt. There they "bathe in a crystal-like stream," put on "fragrant gossamer robes giving off a phosphorescent glow," and wear "shoes of white light." Refreshed now, Chunse and Pose return to their usual positions in the heavens. "The Twin Stars climb up to the Shrine in the sky and sit down properly, facing each other with their silver flutes raised. Just then the Song of the Stars begins to play from all over the heavens." |
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