Читать книгу Traditions. Essays on the Japanese Martial Arts and Ways онлайн

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Even though he barely grazed my nose, tears squirted into my eyes. My feet and legs, still driving forward, were way ahead of the rest of me. I went down like I’d been sledgehammered. The back of my head smacked against the wooden floor. I laid there a second. I knew nothing was seriously hurt, and that I should be leaping back up quickly so as not to put myself at risk of a follow-up attack. But I wasn’t sure where “up” was. All I could see were starbursts.

“Sumimasen,” Yanagi-san said, “Daijobu desu ka?” “My fault. You okay?”

I’m not sure how I expected Mr. Yanagi to react to the accident. Over the years of my training that have followed, however, I have heard that phrase many more times. I have, due to my own clumsiness and ineptitude, had occasion to use it myself. Ask anyone who has practiced with me much at all. And I have come to realize since that afternoon in the dojo, that what Yanagisan said to me is really all one can say in a situation like that. More importantly, in the context of the budo, it is all one should say.