The Noh Plays of Japan Read online

  So days and months went by; Spring came again

  And for a little while

  Here dwelt they on the shore of Suma

  At the first valley.‡

  From the mountain behind us the winds blew down

  Till the fields grew wintry again.

  Our ships lay by the shore, where night and day

  The sea-gulls cried and salt waves washed on our sleeves.

  We slept with fishers in their huts

  On pillows of sand.

  We knew none but the people of Suma.

  And when among the pine-trees

  The evening smoke was rising,

  Brushwood, as they call it,*

  Brushwood we gathered

  And spread for carpet.

  Sorrowful we lived

  On the wild shore of Suma,

  Till the clan Taira and all its princes

  Were but villagers of Suma.

  ATSUMORI

  But on the night of the sixth day of the second month

  My father Tsunemori gathered us together.

  "Tomorrow," he said, "we shall fight our last fight.

  Tonight is all that is left us."

  We sang songs together, and danced.

  PRIEST

  Yes, I remember; we in our siege-camp

  Heard the sound of music

  Echoing from your tents that night;

  There was the music of a flute...

  ATSUMORI

  The bamboo-flute! I wore it when I died.

  PRIEST

  We heard the singing...

  ATSUMORI

  Songs and ballads...

  PRIEST

  Many voices

  ATSUMORI

  Singing to one measure.

  (ATSUMORI dances.)

  First comes the Royal Boat.

  CHORUS

  The whole clan has put its boats to sea.

  He* will not be left behind;

  He runs to the shore.

  But the Royal Boat and the soldiers' boats

  Have sailed far away.

  ATSUMORI

  What can he do?

  He spurs his horse into the waves.

  He is full of perplexity.

  And then

  CHORUS

  He looks behind him and sees

  That Kumagai pursues him;

  He cannot escape.

  Then Atsumori turns his horse

  Knee-deep in the lashing waves,

  And draws his sword.

  Twice, three times he strikes; then, still saddled,

  In close fight they twine; roll headlong together

  Among the surf of the shore.

  So Atsumori fell and was slain, but now the Wheel of Fate

  Has turned and brought him back.

  (ATSUMORI rises from the ground and advances toward the PRIEST with uplifted sword.)

  "There is my enemy," he cries, and would strike,

  But the other is grown gentle

  And calling on Buddha's name

  Has obtained salvation for his foe;

  So that they shall be re-born together

  On one lotus-seat.

  "No, Rensei is not my enemy.

  Pray for me again, oh pray for me again."

  IKUTA

  By Zembō Motoyasu (1453-1532)

  PERSONS

  PRIEST (a follower of Hōnen Shōnin)* ATSUMORI'S CHILD

  ATSUMORI CHORUS

  PRIEST

  I am one that serves Hōnen Shōnin of Kurodani; and as for this child here—once when Hōnen was on a visit to the Temple of Kamo he saw a box lying under a trailing fir-tree; and when he raised the lid, what should he find inside but a lovely man-child one year old! It did not seem to be more than a common foundling, but my master in his compassion took the infant home with him. Ever since then he has had it in his care, doing all that was needful for it; and now the boy is over ten years old.

  But it is a hard thing to have no father or mother, so one day after his preaching the Shōnin told the child's story. And sure enough a young woman stepped out from among the hearers and said it was her child. And when he took her aside and questioned her, he found that the child's father was Taira no Atsumori, who had fallen in battle at Ichi-no-Tani years ago. When the boy was told of this, he longed earnestly to see his father's face, were it but in a dream, and the Shōnin bade him go and pray at the shrine of Kamo. He was to go every day for a week, and this is the last day.

  That is why I have brought him out with me.

  But here we are at the Kamo shrine.

  Pray well, boy, pray well!

  BOY

  How fills my heart with awe

  When I behold the crimson palisade

  Of this abode of gods!

  Oh may my heart be clean

  As the River of Ablution;*

  And the God's kindness deep

  As its unfathomed waters. Show to me,

  Though it were but in dream,

  My father's face and form.

  Is not my heart so ground away with prayer,

  So smooth that it will slip

  Unfelt into the favor of the gods?

  But thou too, Censor of our prayers,

  God of Tadasu,† on the gods prevail

  That what I crave may be!

  How strange! While I was praying I fell half-asleep and had a wonderful dream.

  PRIEST

  Tell me your wonderful dream.

  BOY

  A strange voice spoke to me from within the Treasure Hall, saying, "If you are wanting, though it were but in a dream, to see your father's face, go down from here to the woods of Ikuta in the country of Settsu." That is the marvellous dream I had.

  PRIEST

  It is indeed a wonderful message that the God has sent you. And why should I go back at once to Kurodani? I had best take you straight to the forest of Ikuta. Let us be going.

  PRIEST (describing the journey)

  From the shrine of Kamo,

  From under the shadow of the hills,

  We set out swiftly;

  Past Yamazaki to the fog-bound

  Shores of Minasé;

  And onward where the gale

  Tears travelers' coats and winds about their bones.

  "Autumn has come to woods where yesterday

  We might have plucked the green."*

  To Settsu, to those woods of Ikuta

  Lo! We are come.

  We have gone so fast that here we are already at the woods of Ikuta in the country of Settsu. I have heard tell in the Capital of the beauty of these woods and the river that runs through them. But what I see now surpasses all that I have heard.

  Look! Those meadows must be the Downs of Ikuta. Let us go nearer and admire them.

  But while we have been going about looking at one view and another, the day has dusked.

  I think I see a light over there. There must be a house. Let us go to it and ask for lodging.

  ATSUMORI (speaking from inside a hut).

  Beauty, perception, knowledge, motion, consciousness—

  The Five Attributes of Being—

  All are vain mockery.

  How comes it that men prize

  So weak a thing as body?

  For the soul that guards it from corruption

  Suddenly to the night-moon flies,

  And the poor naked ghost wails desolate

  In the autumn wind.

  Oh! I am lonely. I am lonely!

  PRIEST

  How strange! Inside that grass-hut I see a young soldier dressed in helmet and breastplate. What can he be doing there?

  ATSUMORI

  Oh foolish men, was it not to meet me that you came to this place? I am—oh! I am ashamed to say it—I am the ghost of what once was...Atsumori.

  BOY

  Atsumori? My father...

  CHORUS

  And lightly he ran,

  Plucked at the warrior's sleeve,

  And though his tears
might seem like the long woe

  Of nightingales that weep,

  Yet were they tears of meeting-joy,

  Of happiness too great for human heart.

  So think we, yet oh that we might change

  This fragile dream of joy

  Into the lasting love of waking life!

  ATSUMORI

  Oh pitiful!

  To see this child, born after me,

  Darling that should be gay as a flower,

  Walking in tattered coat of old black cloth.

  Alas!

  Child, when your love of me

  Led you to Kamo shrine, praying to the God

  That, though but in a dream,

  You might behold my face,

  The God of Kamo, full of pity, came

  To Yama, king of Hell.

  King Yama listened and ordained for me

  A moment's respite, but hereafter, never.

  CHORUS

  "The moon is sinking.

  Come while the night is dark," he said,

  "I will tell my tale."

  ATSUMORI

  When the house of Taira was in its pride,

  When its glory was young,

  Among the flowers we sported,

  Among birds, wind, and moonlight;

  With pipes and strings, with song and verse

  We welcomed Springs and Autumns.

  Till at last, because our time was come,

  Across the bridges of Kiso a host unseen

  Swept and devoured us.

  Then the whole clan

  Our lord leading

  Fled from the City of Flowers.

  By paths untrodden

  To the Western Sea our journey brought us.

  Lakes and hills we crossed

  Till we ourselves grew to be like wild men.

  At last by mountain ways—

  We too tossed hither and thither like its waves—

  To Suma came we,

  To the First Valley and the woods of Ikuta.

  And now while all of us,

  We children of Taira, were light of heart

  Because our homes were near,

  Suddenly our foes in great strength appeared.

  CHORUS

  Noriyori, Yoshitsune—their hosts like clouds,

  Like mists of spring.

  For a little while we fought them,

  But the day of our House was ended,

  Our hearts weakened

  That had been swift as arrows from the bowstring.

  We scattered, scattered; till at last

  To the deep waters of the Field of Life*

  We came, but how we found there Death, not Life,

  What profit were it to tell?

  ATSUMORI

  Who is that?

  (Pointing in terror at a figure which he sees off the stage.)

  Can it be Yama's messenger? He comes to tell me that I have outstayed my time. The Lord of Hell is angry: he asks why I am late?

  CHORUS

  So he spoke. But behold

  Suddenly black clouds rise,

  Earth and sky resound with the clash of arms;

  War-demons innumerable

  Flash fierce sparks from brandished spears.

  ATSUMORI

  The Shura foes who night and day

  Come thick about me!

  CHORUS

  He waves his sword and rushes among them,

  Hither and thither he runs slashing furiously;

  Fire glints upon the steel.

  But in a little while

  The dark clouds recede;

  The demons have vanished,

  The moon shines unsullied;

  The sky is ready for dawn.

  ATSUMORI

  Oh! I am ashamed...

  And the child to see me so...

  CHORUS

  "To see my misery!

  I must go back.

  Oh pray for me; pray for me

  When I am gone," he said,

  And weeping, weeping,

  Dropped the child's hand.

  He has faded; he dwindles

  Like the dew from rush-leaves

  Of hazy meadows.

  His form has vanished.

  TSUNEMASA

  By Seami

  PERSONS

  THE PRIEST GYOKEI

  THE GHOST OF TAIRA NO TSUNEMASA

  CHORUS

  GYOKEI

  I am Gyōkei, priest of the imperial temple Ninnaji. You must know that there was a certain prince of the House of Taira named Tsunemasa, Lord of Tajima, who since his boyhood has enjoyed beyond all precedent the favor of our master the Emperor. But now he has been killed at the Battle of the Western Seas.

  It was to this Tsunemasa in his lifetime that the Emperor had given the lute called Green Hill. And now my master bids me take it and dedicate it to Buddha, performing a liturgy of flutes and strings for the salvation of Tsunemasa's soul. And that was my purpose in gathering these musicians together.

  Truly it is said that strangers who shelter under the same tree or draw water from the same pool will be friends in another life. How much the more must intercourse of many years, kindness and favor so deep . . .*

  Surely they will be heard,

  The prayers that all night long

  With due performance of rites

  I have reverently repeated in this Palace

  For the salvation of Tsunemasa

  And for the awakening of his soul.

  CHORUS

  And, more than all, we dedicate

  The lute Green Hill for this dead man;

  While pipe and flute are joined to sounds of prayer.

  For night and day the Gate of Law

  Stands open and the Universal Road

  Rejects no wayfarer.

  TSUNEMASA (speaking off the stage)

  "The wind blowing through withered trees: rain from a cloudless sky.

  The moon shining on level sands: frost on a summer's night."*

  Frost lying...but I, because I could not lie at rest,

  Am come back to the World for a while,

  Like a shadow that steals over the grass.

  I am like dews that in the morning

  Still cling to the grasses. Oh pitiful the longing

  That has beset me!

  GYŌKEI

  How strange! Within the flame of our candle that is burning low because the night is far spent, suddenly I seemed to see a man's shadow dimly appearing. Who can be here?

  TSUNEMASA (his shadow disappearing)

  I am the ghost of Tsunemasa. The sound of your prayers has brought me in visible shape before you.

  GYŌKEI

  "I am the ghost of Tsunemasa," he said, but when I looked to where the voice had sounded nothing was there, neither substance nor shadow!

  TSUNEMASA

  Only a voice,

  GYŌKEI

  A dim voice whispers where the shadow of a man

  Visibly lay, but when I looked

  TSUNEMASA

  It had vanished—

  GYŌKEI

  This flickering form...

  TSUNEMASA

  Like haze over the fields.

  CHORUS

  Only as a tricking magic, A bodiless vision,

  Can he hover in the world of his lifetime,

  Swift-changing Tsunemasa.

  By this name we call him, yet of the body

  That men named so, what is left but longing?

  What but the longing to look again, through the wall of death,

  On one he loved?

  "Sooner shall the waters in its garden cease to flow

  Than I grow weary of living in the Palace of my Lord."*

  Like a dream he has come,

  Like a morning dream.

  GYŌKEI

  How strange! When the form of Tsunemasa had vanished, his voice lingered and spoke to me! Am I dreaming or waking? I cannot tell. But this I know—that by the power of my incantations I have had conve
rse with the dead. Oh! marvellous potency of the Law!

  TSUNEMASA

  It was long ago that I came to the Palace. I was but a boy then, but all the world knew me; for I was marked with the love of our Lord, with the favor of an Emperor. And, among many gifts, he gave to me once while I was in the World this lute which you have dedicated. My fingers were ever on its strings.

  CHORUS

  Plucking them even as now

  This music plucks at your heart;

  The sound of the plectrum, then as now

  Divine music fulfilling

  The vows of Sarasvati.*

  But this Tsunemasa,

  Was he not from the days of his childhood pre-eminent

  In faith, wisdom, benevolence,

  Honor and courtesy; yet for his pleasure

  Ever of birds and flowers,

  Of wind and moonlight making

  Ballads and songs to join their harmony

  To pipes and lutes?

  So springs and autumns passed he.

  But in a World that is as dew,

  As dew on the grasses, as foam upon the waters,

  What flower lasteth?

  GYŌKEI

  For the dead man's sake we play upon this lute Green Hill that he loved when he was in the World. We follow the lute-music with a concord of many instruments.

  (Music.)