Certain Noble Plays of Japan Part 2

I will go to that love-cave, It will be a tale to take back to my village.

Will you show me my way there?

s.h.i.+TE So be it, I will teach you the path.

TSURE Tell him to come over this way.

BOTH

Here are the pair of them Going along before the traveller.

CHORUS

We have spent the whole day until dusk Pus.h.i.+ng aside the gra.s.s From the over-grown way at Kefu, And we are not yet come to the cave.

O you there, cutting gra.s.s on the hill, Please set your mind on this matter.

'You'd be asking where the dew is 'While the frost's lying here on the road.

'Who'd tell you that now?'

Very well then don't tell us, But be sure we will come to the cave.

s.h.i.+TE

There's a cold feel in the autumn.

Night comes....

CHORUS

And storms; trees giving up their leaf, Spotted with sudden showers.

Autumn! our feet are clogged In the dew-drenched, entangled leaves.

The perpetual shadow is lonely, The mountain shadow is lying alone.

The owl cries out from the ivies That drag their weight on the pine.

Among the orchids and chrysanthemum flowers The hiding fox is now lord of that love-cave, Nis.h.i.+dzuka, That is dyed like the maple's leaf.

They have left us this thing for a saying.

That pair have gone into the cave.

(sign for the exit of s.h.i.+te and Tsure)

Second Part

(The Waki has taken the posture of sleep. His respectful visit to the cave is beginning to have its effect.)

WAKI (restless)

It seems that I cannot sleep For the length of a p.r.i.c.ket's horn.

Under October wind, under pines, under night!

I will do service to Butsu.

(he performs the gestures of a ritual)

TSURE

Aie! honoured priest!

You do not dip twice in the river Beneath the same tree's shadow Without bonds in some other life.

Hear sooth-say, Now is there meeting between us, Between us who were until now In life and in after-life kept apart.

A dream-bridge over wild gra.s.s, Over the gra.s.s I dwell in.

O honoured! do not awake me by force.

I see that the law is perfect.

s.h.i.+TE (supposedly invisible)

It is a good service you have done, sir, A service that spreads in two worlds, And binds up an ancient love That was stretched out between them.

I had watched for a thousand days.

Take my thanks, For this meeting is under a difficult law.

And now I will show myself in the form of Nis.h.i.+kigi.

I will come out now for the first time in colour.

(The characters announce or explain their acts, as these are mostly symbolical. Thus here the s.h.i.+te, or Sh'te, announces his change of costume, and later the dance.)

CHORUS

The three years are over and past: All that is but an old story.

s.h.i.+TE

To dream under dream we return.

Three years.... And the meeting comes now!

This night has happened over and over, And only now comes the tryst.

CHORUS

Look there to the cave Beneath the stems of the Suzuki.

From under the shadows of the love-gra.s.s, See, see how they come forth and appear For an instant.... Illusion!

s.h.i.+TE

There is at the root of h.e.l.l No distinction between princes and commons; Wretched for me! 'tis the saying.

WAKI

Strange, what seemed so very old a cave Is all glittering-bright within, Like the flicker of fire.

It is like the inside of a house.

They are setting up a loom, And heaping up charm-sticks. No, The hangings are out of old time.

Is it illusion, illusion?

TSURE

Our hearts have been in the dark of the falling snow, We have been astray in the flurry.

You should tell better than we How much is illusion; You who are in the world.

We have been in the whirl of those who are fading.

s.h.i.+TE