The First Night
Love Conquers Death
A man sits by the deathbed of his lover, unable to believe that so young and beautiful a woman as she could be doomed to perish. Before she dies, the woman makes the man promise to wait faithfully for a hundred years at her graveside until she comes back. Will he be able to keep his word?
The man dutifully places her body in a hole he digs out with an oyster shell, and marks the place with the fragments of fallen stars. He watches the sun rise and set again and again until he finally loses count of the days and the years. He is just beginning to doubt her promise, when a flower sprouts up from the grave and presses itself to his lips. He looks up at the sky where a single star shines. She has returned.
The audio (08:13) is read by Ken Yoshizawa.
© Tetsuji Iwaki