The Noh Plays of Japan (19 page)

The wing-ways of the air, how climb

The sky, my home?

Oh, give it back, in charity give it back.

HAKURY
Ō

No charity is in me, and your moan

Makes my heart resolute.

Look, I take your robe, hide it, and will not give it back.

(Describing his own actions. Then he walks away.)

ANGEL

Like a bird without wings,

I would rise, but robeless

HAKURY
Ō

To the low earth you sink, an angel dwelling

In the dingy world.

ANGEL

This way, that way.

Despair only.

HAKURY
Ō

But when she saw he was resolved to keep it...

ANGEL

Strength failing.

HAKURY
Ō

Help none...

CHORUS

Then on her coronet,

Jeweled as with the dew of tears,

The bright flowers drooped and faded.
*

O piteous to see before the eyes,

Fivefold the signs of sickness

Corrupt an angel's form.

ANGEL

I look into the plains of heaven,

The cloud-ways are hid in mist,

The path is lost.

CHORUS

Oh, enviable clouds,

At your will wandering

Forever idle in the empty sky

That was my home!

Now fades and fades upon my ear

The voice of Kalavink,
*

Daily accustomed song.

And you, oh you I envy,

Wild-geese clamorous

Down the sky-paths returning;

And you, O seaward circling, shoreward sweeping

Swift seagulls of the bay:

Even the wind, because in heaven it blows,

The wind of Spring I envy.

HAKURYO

Listen. Now that I have seen you in your sorrow, I yield and would give you back your mantle.

ANGEL

Oh, I am happy! Give it me then!

HAKURYO

Wait. I have heard tell of the dances that are danced in heaven. Dance for me now, and I will give back your robe.

ANGEL

I am happy, happy. Now I shall have wings and mount the sky again.

And for thanksgiving I bequeath

A dance of remembrance to the world,

Fit for the princes of men:

The dance-tune that makes to turn

The towers of the moon,

I will dance it here and as an heirloom leave it

To the sorrowful men, of the world.

Give back my mantle, I cannot dance without it.

Say what you will, I must first have back the robe.

HAKURY
Ō

Not yet, for if I give back your robe, not a step would you dance, but fly with it straight to the sky.

ANGEL

No, no. Doubt is for mortals;

In heaven is no deceit.

HAKURY
Ō

I am ashamed. Look, I give back the robe.

(He gives it to her and she takes it in both hands.)

ANGEL

The heavenly lady puts on her garment, She dances the dance of the Rainbow Skirt, of the Robe of Feathers.

HAKURY
Ō

The sky-robe flutters; it yields to the wind.

ANGEL

Sleeve like a flower wet with rain...

HAKURY
Ō

The first dance is over.

ANGEL

Shall I dance?

CHORUS

The dance of Suruga, with music of the East?

Thus was it first danced.

(The
ANGEL
dances, while the
CHORUS
sings the words of the dance, an ancient Shinto chant.)

"Why name we

Wide-stretched and everlasting.

The sky of heaven?

Two gods
*
there came of old

And built, upon ten sides shut in,

A measured world for men;

But without limit arched they

The sky above, and named it

Wide-stretched and everlasting."

ANGEL

Thus is the Moon-God's palace:

Its walls are fashioned

With an axe of jade.

CHORUS

In white dress, black dress,

Thrice ten angels

In two ranks divided,

Thrice five for the waning,

Thrice five for nights of the waxing moon,

One heavenly lady on each night of the moon

Does service and fulfils

Her ritual task assigned.

ANGEL

I too am of their number,

A moon-lady of heaven.

CHORUS

"Mine is the fruit of the moon-tree,
*
pyet came I to the East incarnate,
^†

Dwelt with the people of Earth, and gave them

A gift of music, song-dance of Suruga.

Now upon earth trail the long mists of Spring;

Who knows but in the valleys of the moon

The heavenly moon-tree puts her blossom on?

The blossoms of her crown win back their glory:

It is the sign of Spring.

Not heaven is here, but beauty of the wind and sky.

Blow, blow, you wind, and build

Cloud-walls across the sky, lest the vision leave us

Of a maid divine!

This tint of springtime in the woods,

This color on the headland,

Snow on the mountain,
^‡

Moonlight on the clear shore—

Which fairest? Nay, each peerless

At the dawn of a Spring day.

Waves lapping, wind: in the pine-trees whispering

Along the quiet shore. Say you, what cause

Has Heaven to be estranged

From us Earth-men; are we not children of the Gods,

Within, without the jewelled temple wall,

Born where no cloud dares dim the waiting moon,

Land of Sunrise?"

ANGEL

May our Lord's life

Last long as a great rock rubbed

Only by the rare trailing Of an angel's feather-skirt.'

Oh, marvellous music!

The Eastern song joined

To many instruments;

Harp, zither, pan-pipes, flute,

Belly their notes beyond the lonely clouds.

The sunset stained with crimson light

From Mount Sumeru's side;
*

For green, the islands floating on the sea;

For whiteness whirled

A snow of blossom blasted

By the wild winds, a white cloud

Of sleeves waving.

(Concluding the dance, she folds her hands and prays.)

NAMU KIMYO GWATTEN-SHI

To thee, O Monarch of the Moon,

Be glory and praise,

Thou son of Seishi Omnipotent!
^†

CHORUS

This is a dance of the East.

(She dances three of the five parts of the dance called "Yo no Mai," the Prelude Dance.)

ANGEL

I am robed in sky, in the empty blue of heaven.

CHORUS

Now she is robed in a garment of mist, of Spring mist.

ANGEL

Wonderful in perfume and color, an angel's skirt—left, right, left, left, right.

(Springing from side to side.)

The skirt swishes, the flowers nod, the feathery sleeves trail out and return, the dancing-sleeves.

(She dances "Ha no Mai" the Broken Dance.)

CHORUS

She has danced many dances,

But not yet are they numbered,

The dances of the East.

And now she, whose beauty is as the young moon,

Shines on us in the sky of midnight,

The fifteenth night,

With the beam of perfect fulfilment,

The splendor of Truth.

The vows
*
are fulfilled, and the land we live in

Rich with the Seven Treasures

By this dance rained down on us,

The gift of Heaven.

But, as the hours pass by,

Sky-cloak of feathers fluttering, fluttering,

Over the pine-woods of Mio,

Past the Floating Islands, through the feet of the clouds she flies,

Over the mountain of Ashitaka, the high peak of Fuji,

Very faint her form,

Mingled with the mists of heaven;

Now lost to sight

Footnotes

*
In Japanese, Kantan.

*
Corresponds to the modern province Hupeh.

*
So,Chinese "Ch'u," was formerly an independent feudal State.The name means "thorn," as does the Japanese "ibara." Chamberlain call it "The Country of Ibara," but in this case the reading "So" is indicated by both Owada and Haga.

*
Kings and princes are often called "thou above the clouds."

†
1 Palaces of the First Emperor. An attendant has removed the pillow from the "bed." From this moment the bed becomes a magnificent palace, as described in the verses which follow.

‡
At this point the Boy Dancer enters.

*
Name of a famous Chinese palace.

†
Famous Gate in the palace of the Tang Emperors.

‡
These lines are from a poem by Yasutane, d. 997
A.D.
(Chamberlain attributes them to Po Ch
Å«
-i)

*
Here the Boy Dancer begins to dance the Dream-dance.

†
On the third day of the third month people floated cups in the stream.Each person as the cup passed in front of him,had to compose a poem end drink the content of the cup.

‡
These word also describe the dancer's movments.

The Moon

*
See Waley,
Japanese Poetry,
p. 77.

*
I.e. Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood. A pious exclamation of astonishment like the Spanish "Jesù, Maria, José!"

*
The Sun is male, i.e. fair.The Moon female,i.e. foul.

†
The demons of Delusion, of the Senses, of the Air, and of Death.

*
The Sun.

*
The heresy of Nihilism. To say that phenomena do not exist is as untrue as to say that they exist.

†
He quotes a Zen text.

‡
Iwa,
"rock," also means "not speak."

*
Some actors,says owada,here write in the air with their fan; but such detailed miming is valugar.

†
An allusion to the cherry-trees at the Kiyomizu-dear.

‡
Bamboo-strips rubbed together to produce a squeaking sound.

*
A Chinese couplet quoted from the Shih
Jen Y
Å«
Hsieh
("Jade-dust of the Poets"), a Sung Dynasty work on poetry which was popular in Japan.

*
Masse
here means, I think, "future generations," not "this degraded age."

*
When an angel is about to die,the flowers of him feather robe is stained with dust, sweat pours from under the arm-pits, the eyelids tremble, he is tired of his place in heaven.

*
The sacred bird of heaven.

*
Izanagi and Izanami.

*
The "Katsura" tree, a kind of laurel supposed to grow in the moon.

†
Lit."dividing my body," an expression used of Buddhist divinities that detach a por-tion of thier godhead and incarnate it in some visible from.

‡
Fuji

The inner and out temples at Ise

Quoting an ancient prayer for the Mikado

*
Sumeru is the great mountain at the centre of the universe. Its west side is of rubies, its south side of green stones, its east side of white stones, etc.