The Noh Plays of Japan (9 page)

I am disconsolate and will lie down to rest.

BENKEI

Then Benkei, all unknowing,

Came towards the Bridge where white waves lapped.

Heavily his feet clanked on the boards of the Bridge.

USHIWAKA

And even before he saw him Ushiwaka gave a whoop of joy.

"Someone has come," he cried, and hitching his cloak over his shoulder

Took his stand at the bridge-side.

BENKEI

Benkei discerned him and would have spoken...

But when he looked, lo! it was a woman's form!

Then, because he had left the World,
*
with troubled mind he hurried on.

USHIWAKA

Then Ushiwaka said,

"I will make game of him," and as Benkei passed

Kicked at the button of his halberd so that it jerked into the air.

BENKEI
(
cries out in surprise
)

Ah! fool, I will teach you a lesson!

CHORUS

Then Benkei while he retrieved his halberd Cried out in anger,

"You shall soon feel the strength of my arm," and fell fiercely upon him.

But the boy, not a jot alarmed,

Stood his ground and with one hand pulled aside his cloak,

While with the other he quietly drew his sword from the scabbard

And parried the thrust of the halberd that threatened him.

Again and again he parried the halberd's point.

And so they fought, now closing, now breaking.

What shall Benkei do? For when he thinks that he has conquered,

With his little sword the boy thrusts the blow aside.

Again and again Benkei strikes.

Again and again his blows are parried,

Till at last even he, mighty Benkei,

Can do battle no longer.

Disheartened he steps back the space of a few bridge-beams.

"Monstrous," he cries, "that this stripling...No, it cannot be.

He shall not outwit my skill."

And holding out his halberd at full length before him

He rushed forward and dealt a mighty blow.

But Ushiwaka turned and dived swiftly to the left.

Benkei recovered his halberd and slashed at the boy's skirts;

But
he,
unfaltering, instantly leapt from the ground.

And when he thrust at the boy's body,

Then Ushiwaka squirmed with head upon the ground.

Thus a thousand, thousand bouts they fought

Till the halberd fell from Benkei's weary hands.

He would have wrestled, but the boy's sword flashed before him,

And he could get no hold.

Then at his wits' end, "Oh, marvellous youth!"

Benkei cried, and stood dumbfounded.

CHORUS

Who are you that, so young and frail, possess such daring? Tell us your name and state.

USHIWAKA

Why should I conceal it from you? I am Minamoto Ushiwaka.

CHORUS

Yoshitomo's son?

USHIWAKA

I am. And your name...?

CHORUS
(speaking for
BENKEI
)

"I am called Musashi Benkei of the Western Pagoda.

And now that we have told our names,

I surrender myself and beg for mercy;

For you are yet a child, and I a priest.

Such are your rank and lineage, such your prowess

That I will gladly serve you.

Too hastily you took me for an enemy; but now begins A three lives' bond; henceforward
*
As slave I serve you."

So, while the one made vows of homage, the other girded up his cloak.

Then Benkei laid his halberd across his shoulder

And together they swent on their way

To the palace of Kuj
ō
.
*

Footnotes

*
I.e. he is "attached" to earth and cannot get away to the Western Paradise.

*
I.e. the time of his encounter with Ushiwaka.

*
Aizen.

†
Devadatta, the wicked contemporary of Buddha.

‡
The six paths to Bodisattva-hood, i.e. Almsgiving, Observance of Rules, Forbearance, Meditation, Knowledge, and Singleness of Heart.

§
Actually from the Nirvana Sutra.

+
The Priest.

*
Koye-butsuji,
"Voice-service."

*
Yoshitsune (Ushiwaka) had run away from the temple where he was being educated and joined the merchant's caravan; see p. 39.

*
Names of strokes in fencing.

*
I have thought it better to print these "recitals" as verse, though in the original (as obviously in my translation) they are almost prose.

*
Semimaru.

*
A tall, nodding hat.

*
1064
A.D.

*
I.e. Minamoto and Taira.

+
1156-1159
A.D.

*
Yoshi-iye.

*
Ushiwaka had not heard this conversation between the hatmaker and his wife, which takes place as an "aside."

*
I.e. into power.

*
I.e. robbers. A band of brigands who troubled China in 184
A.D.
were known as the White Waves, and the phrase was later applied to robbers in general.

*
Torches were thrown among the enemy to discover their number and defenses.

*
God of War and clan-god of the Minamotos.

*
He feels that he is too old for the work.

*
I.e. Ushiwaka.

*
1-3 a.m.

*
The Kurama Temple.

*
Flowers of the
y
Å«
gao
or calabash. There is a reference to Lady Y
Å«
gao (see p. 117, who lived at Goj
ō
.

*
Because he was a priest.

*
I.e. three incarnations.

+
Ushiwaka's home.

By Seami

PERSONS

GIRL and ATTENDANT

Late dewdrops are our lives that only wait

Till the wind blows, the wind of morning blows.

GIRL

I am Hitomaru. I live in the valley of Kamegaye. My father Kagekiyo the Passionate fought for the House of Hei
*
and for this was hated by the Genji.
^†
I am told they have banished him to Miya-zaki in the country of Hy
Å«
ga, and there in changed estate he passes the months and years. I must not be downcast at the toil of the journey;
^‡
for hardship is the lot of all that travel on unfamiliar roads, and I must bear it for my father's sake.

GIRL and ATTENDANT

Oh double-wet our sleeves

With the tears of troubled dreaming and the dews

That wet our grassy bed.

We leave Sagami; who shall point the way

To T
ō
t
ō
mi, far off not only in name?
^§
Over the sea we row:

And now the eight-fold Spider Bridge we cross

To Mikawa. How long, O City of the Clouds,
^†

Shall we, inured to travel, see you in our dreams?

ATTENDANT

We have journeyed so fast that I think we must already have come to Miyazaki in the country of Hy
Å«
ga. It is here you should ask for your father.

(The voice of
KAGEKIYO
is heard from within his hut.
)

KAGEKIYO

Behind this gate,

This pine-wood barricade shut in alone

I waste the hours and days;

By me not numbered, since my eyes no longer

See the clear light of heaven, but in darkness,

Unending darkness, profitlessly sleep

In this low room.

For garment given but one coat to cover

From winter winds or summer's fire

This ruin, this anatomy!

CHORUS
(speaking for
KAGEKIYO
)

Oh better had I left the world, to wear

The black-stained sleeve.

Who will now pity me, whose withered frame

Even to myself is hateful?

Or who shall make a care to search for me

And carry consolation to my woes?

GIRL

How strange! That hut is so old, I cannot think that any one can live there. Yet I heard a voice speaking within. Perhaps some beggar lodges there; I will not go nearer.
(She steps back.
)

KAGEKIYO

Though my eyes see not autumn

Yet has the wind brought tiding

GIRL

Of one who wanders

By ways unknown bewildered,

Finding rest nowhere—

KAGEKIYO

For in the Three Worlds of Being

Nowhere is rest,
*
but only

In the Void Eternal.

None is, and none can answer

Where
to thy asking.

ATTENDANT
(going up to
KAGEKIYO'S
hut
)

I have come to your cottage to ask you something.

KAGEKIYO

What is it you want?

ATTENDANT

Can you tell me where the exile lives?

KAGEKIYO

The exile? What exile do you mean? Tell me his name.

ATTENDANT

We are looking for Kagekiyo the Passionate who fought for the Taira.

KAGEKIYO

I have heard of him indeed. But I am blind, and have not seen him. I have heard such sad tales of his plight that I needs must pity him. Go further; ask elsewhere.

ATTENDANT
(
to
GIRL
,
who has been waiting
)

It does not seem that we shall find him here. Let us go further and ask again.
(They pass on.
)

KAGEKIYO

Who can it be that is asking for me? What if it should be the child of this blind man? For long ago when I was at Atsuta in Owari I courted a woman and had a child by her. But since the child was a girl, I thought I would get no good of her and left her with the headman of the valley of Kamegaye. But she was not content to stay with her foster-parents and has come all this way to meet her true father.

CHORUS

To hear a voice,

To hear and not to see!

Oh pity of blind eyes!

I have let her pass by;

I have not told my name;

But it was love that bound me,

Love's rope that held me.

ATTENDANT
(calling into the side-bridge
)

Hie! Is there any villager about?

VILLAGER
(raising the curtain that divides the side-bridge from the stage
)

What do you want with me?

ATTENDANT

Do you know where the exile lives?

VILLAGER

The exile? What exile is it you are asking for?

ATTENDANT

One called Kagekiyo the Passionate who fought for the Taira.

VILLAGER

Did you not see someone in a thatched hut under the hillside as you came along?

ATTENDANT

Why, we saw a blind beggar in a thatched hut.

VILLAGER

That blind beggar is your man.
He
is Kagekiyo.

(The
GIRL
starts and trembles.
)

But why does your lady tremble when I tell you that he is Kagekiyo? What is amiss with her?

ATTENDANT

No wonder that you ask. I will tell you at once; this lady is Kagekiyo's daughter. She has borne the toil of this journey because she longed to meet her father face to face. Please take her to him.

VILLAGER

She is Kagekiyo's daughter? How strange, how strange! But, lady, calm yourself and listen.

Kagekiyo went blind in both his eyes, and finding himself helpless, shaved his head and called himself the beggar of Hy
Å«
ga. He begs a little from travelers; and we villagers are sorry for him and see to it that he does not starve. Perhaps he would not tell you his name because he was ashamed of what he has become. But if you will come with me I will shout "Kagekiyo" at him. He will surely answer to his own name. Then you shall go to him and talk of what you will, old times or now. Please come this way.

(
They go towards the hut.
)

Hie, Kagekiyo, Kagekiyo! Are you there, Kagekiyo the Passionate?

KAGEKIYO
(stopping his ears with his hands, irritably
)

Noise, noise!

Silence! I was vexed already. For a while ago there came travelers from my home! Do you think I let them stay? No, no. I could not show them my loathsomeness...It was hard to let them go— not tell them my name!

A thousand rivers of tears soften my sleeve!

A thousand, thousand things I do in dream

And wake to idleness! Oh I am resolved

To be in the world as one who is not in the world.

Let them shout "Kagekiyo, Kagekiyo":

Need beggars answer?

Moreover, in this land I have a name.

CHORUS

"In Hy
Å«
ga sunward-facing

A fit name found I.

Oh call me not by the name

Of old days that have dropped

Like the bow from a stricken hand!

For I whom passion

Had left for ever

At the sound of that wrathful name

Am angry, angry."

(While the
CHORUS
speaks his thought
KAGEKIYO
mimes their words, waving his stick and finally beating it against his thigh in a crescendo of rage.
)

KAGEKIYO
(suddenly lowering his voice, gently
)

But while I dwell here

CHORUS

"But while I dwell here

To those that tend me

Should I grow hateful.

Then were I truly

A blind man staffless.

Oh forgive

Profitless anger, tongue untended,

A cripple's spleen."

KAGEKIYO

For though my eyes be darkened

CHORUS

"Though my eyes be darkened

Yet, no word spoken,

Men's thoughts I see.

Listen now to the wind

In the woods upon the hill:

Snow is coming, snow!

Oh bitterness to wake

From dreams of flowers unseen!

And on the shore,

Listen, the waves are lapping

Over rough stones to the cliff.

The evening tide is in.

(
KAGEKIYO
fumbles for his staff and rises, coming just outside the hut. The mention of "waves," "shore," "tide" has reminded him of the great shore-battle at Yashima in which the Tairas triumphed.
)

"I was one of them, of those Tairas. If you will listen, I will tell you the tale..."

KAGEKIYO
(to the
VILLAGER
)

There was a weight on my mind when I spoke to you so harshly. Pray forgive me.

VILLAGER

No, no! you are always so! I do not heed you. But tell me, did not some one come before, asking for Kagekiyo?

KAGEKIYO

No—you are the only one who has asked.

VILLAGER

It is not true. Someone came here saying that she was Kageki-yo's daughter. Why did you not tell her? I was sorry for her and have brought her back with me.

(To the
GIRL.
) Come now, speak with your father.

GIRL
(going to
KAGEKIYO'S
side and touching his sleeve
)

It is I who have come to you.)

I have come all the long way,)

Through rain, wind, frost and dew.)

And now—you have not understood; it was all for nothing.)

Am I not worth your love? Oh cruel, cruel!
(She weeps.
)

KAGEKIYO

All that till now I thought to have concealed)

Is known; where can I hide,)

I that have no more refuge than the dew)

That finds no leaf to lie on?

Should you, oh flower delicately tended,

Call me your father, then would the World know you

A beggar's daughter. Oh think not ill of me

That I did let you pass!

(He gropes falteringly with his right hand and touches her sleeve.
)

CHORUS

Oh sad, sad!

He that of old gave welcome

To casual strangers and would raise an angry voice

If any passed his door,

Now from his own child gladly

Would hide his wretchedness.

He that once

Among all that in the warships of Taira