Is very early yet--and young shoots hide.
SPIRIT
“The spring-time comes, but as I see the snow
Upon the plain, I think of the old year.”[19]
The young green shoots of this year still are few
So we must gather those with older leaves.
CHORUS
And yet, although the leaves are old and sere
The young green shoots are fresh as the new year.
Guard then thyself, thou field of the young spring!
SPIRIT
To the field of spring,
To the field of spring,
To pluck violets
He came, and then
Only purple leaves
Of the weeds culled he
Who came gathering.
CHORUS
Ah, yes, the colour of affinity[20]
Has brought to my sad thought the memory
Of Love’s light bridge which was asunder torn.[21]
SPIRIT
The aged stems of plants once gone to seed
In Sano district still may sprout again,
CHORUS
And their green colour will be purple dyed.
SPIRIT
The Shepherd’s Purse of Chōan--[22]
CHORUS
And the hot shepherd’s purse, a useless thing,
And other herbs white rooted, like the dawn,[23]
Which, hidden by the snow we may mistake
And gather in the place of those we want.
CHORUS
The morning breeze in Ono still is cold
The lower branches of the pine trees still
Are weighted down with snow. Where hides the spring
We cannot tell. And though the river breeze
Blows cold, our billowing sleeves are colder far.
Let us go home, although we leave unplucked
Some of the young green shoots, let us go home.
PRIEST
Now there is something I would speak of unto thee if thou permittest--
All the maidens who were gathering the young greens have departed
Save thyself, and wherefore then art thou alone remaining with me?
SPIRIT
For the Maiden’s Tomb but just now thou didst ask me. I will show
thee.
PRIEST
Yes, indeed, I do desire to see it and I pray thee show me.
SPIRIT
This way honourably follow. And the Maiden’s Tomb is this!
PRIEST
What its history, and why then, is the Maiden’s Tomb so calléd?
Pray minutely tell the story.
SPIRIT
Then will I the tale unfold.
Once upon a time a maiden who was called Unai did live here,
And two men there were, called Chinu and Sasada, and they loved her.
And to her upon the same day, in the same hour, both declaring
Fervent love, they sent two letters. But she thought that if she
yielded
Unto one, the other’s anger would be deep, and so to neither
Would she yield (and then her father said the truest shot should
win her).
But upon Ikuta’s river did the two men’s flying arrows
Pierce together but one water-fowl, and pierce the selfsame wing.
And then I thought, how cruel now I am.[24]
The wild fowl’s troth, though plighted deep and true
Is broken for me, and the happy pair--
Mandarin ducks--for my poor sake must bear
The pain of separation. Piteous!
So, with my life dismayed, I’d throw myself
Into Ikuta river’s flowing tide[25]
Here in the land of Tsu. Ikuta stands
Merely a name to such a one as I.
CHORUS
These were her last words, as she took her way
Into the river’s water. When they found
They buried her beneath this mound of clay.
Then the two men, her lovers, came to seek
Her tomb. No longer will we live, they said,
And like the stream of Ikuta, the tide
Of their remorse rose up. Each with his sword
Ended the other’s life.
And that was too my sin! That too my sin!
What can become of such a one, so full
Of sins? I pray thee therefore give me help!
So saying ’neath the tomb once more she sank
Yea, down beneath the tomb once more she sank.
[_Ghost of UNAI appears_]
PRIEST
Short as a young stag’s horns in summer time[26]
The night of sleep! The weeds grow on her tomb,
And from their shade appears again the ghost.
I’ll raise the voice of prayer. “Thou spirit soul,
Awake thyself to understanding true,
Enter Nirvana casting off from thee
Delusions of thy life and of thy death.”[27]
GHOST
Oh, the wide field, how desolate it is--
My own deserted tomb and nothing else!
Only wild beasts contending for the dead
Which come and go in gloom, and o’er the tomb
The watching spirits flying in the wind
That circling ever beats upon the pines.
The heaven’s lightening, and the morning dew
Are still before my eyes, and symbolise
The world of Earth, as transient as they.
How many of the lonely tombs are those
Of Youth, whose lives are so unlike the name
Of Ikuta, so-called the field of life.
CHORUS
A man comes from the world I left long since.
How thankful am I. ’Tis the voice of prayer!
CHORUS
I
O human world. How much I long for thee.
II
A [living] man while spending [in this world]
Even a single day and single night,
A [living] man while spending [in this world]
Even a single day and single night,
Eight billion and four thousand things has he
To think about. But how much more have I,
I, who left long ago the pleasant world--
’Twas in the reign of Tenchi and by now
The second Horikawa holds his sway.
Oh, that once more unto the pleasant world
I might return. How long in shady weeds
And ’neath the moss, how long I buried lie!
But worse, not buried under the cool earth
I suffer from a roasting heat and burn,
Within a flaming dwelling-place, behold!
Within a flaming dwelling-place, behold!
PRIEST
Alas! How truly piteous is thy state,
If only thou wouldst once but cast away
The clouds of thy delusions, thou wouldst be
Freed from thy many sins and from all ills.
“From evils all, and sins, from hells and fiends,
Illnesses all and deaths, be thou set free.”
Oh, quickly float thyself in buoyant thought!
GHOST
Ah, grateful am I, for the voice of prayer
Has reached my ears, and tho’ my sufferings
Do know no intermission, in hot hell
The smoke clears back a moment, and I see
A little open space. How glad I am!
Oh, how terrible! Who art thou? What! Of Sasada the spirit?
And thou art the ghost of Chinu? And from right and left you hold me
By the hands, and saying to me “Come, come, come.” Though they
torment me
I don’t dare to leave the shelter of my burning house; for no one,
Nothing, is there to rely on. And I see another spirit
Flying from afar towards me. Oh, how terrible! I see it,
’Tis the duck, and turned to iron, turned to steel it is before me!
With beaks of steel like naked swords the bird
Pecks at my head and feasts upon my brain.
Is it because of crimes I did commit?
Oh, how resentful is it, cruel bird!
Oh! I pray thee, Priest, I pray thee, from these sufferings
relieve me!
PRIEST
“The time of torment fierce has now arrived.”
The spirit had not finished saying this,
When o’er the tomb flew out a band of flame.
GHOST
And then its light became a hellish fiend,
PRIEST
Who raised the torture rod, and drove at her.
GHOST
Before me is a sea if I attempt
But to advance
PRIEST
While flames are in the rear.
GHOST
And on the left.
PRIEST
And on the right as well.
GHOST
By water and by fire am I now held
In double torment.
PRIEST
Helpless utterly.
GHOST
When to the pillar of the burning house
CHORUS
I reach my hands, and do attempt to cling
At once the column bursts out into flame--
The blazing pillar must I then embrace.
Oh, scorching heat! Oh, unendurable!
The whole five members of my body turned
Into black smoke by this fierce burning fire.
GHOST
And then when I arose--
CHORUS
And then when I arose, a jailor fiend
Applied the torture-rod, and drove me out.
I left the house and wandered through eight hells
And there all suffering I underwent.
Now I would show thee how I blotted out
My many sins. Before thee lie the scenes
First in the hell of all equality,[28]
Then in the hell of black rope, devil led,
And driven to the hell of gathering,
Where all assemble. Then the hell of cries,
Of bitter cries, came next, and then of heat,
Of utmost heat, and then the hell of depth,
Depth infinite, into whose space I fell
Feet upwards and head downwards for three years
And three months more, in agony the while.
And after that a little interval--
The devils left me and the flames expired,
I thought there was a respite to my pain,
But then the darkness grew more terrible
And to my burning house I would return
I thought--but where then was it? To myself
I asked the question in the pitchy dark.
And seeking, seeking, to and fro I groped.
“The Maiden’s Tomb”--I searched it everywhere,
And now at last I find “The Maiden’s Tomb.”
Like flying dews leaving a grassy shade,
Like flying dews leaving a grassy shade,
The spirit’s form has once more disappeared
The spirit’s shadow has now vanished.
END OF “THE MAIDEN’S TOMB”
* * * * *
(The play ends thus abruptly, leaving us in doubt as to whether or not
the Priest’s admonition prevailed, and she escaped into Nirvana.)
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Page 39--This piece in the current original is called
_Motome-zuka_, which means, the “Sought Tomb.” In older versions it
was previously called _Otome-zuka_, meaning the “Maiden’s Tomb,” by
which name the story was also known in the _Yamato Monogatari_ (“Tales
of Japan”), written nearly a thousand years ago. _Otome_ and _motome_
sounding so similar in Japanese, and, as the two men came _seeking_ the
tomb, the name was changed in the text of the Japanese Nō, but as the
older name both has priority and is more euphonious I revert to the
older title.
This piece is one of the eleven most important _utais_, and the
_Shite’s_ part is a particularly difficult one to chant.
[9] The long lines are translations of the “words” in the play. As
these words are not ordinary prose it seems better not to put them into
English prose from which they are so remote. (See p. 33.)
[10] Page 40--The original reads:--_Ikuta on Ono no asakazeni nao
saekaeru tamoto kana_. Here the meaning is very confused, the word for
sleeves (_tamoto_) following in the Japanese mind from _kaeru_ (which
means to turn) in _saekaeru_ (it is cold).
[11] Page 40--This brings a picture to mind of the contrast between
city and country life. An old institution among the well-to-do people
of the capital is to make a pleasure picnic for the gathering of the
young green shoots in very early spring. It was a general custom to eat
the “seven greens” on the seventh day of January each year, and the
poor people in the country hamlets make it one of their slender sources
of revenue, to gather these green shoots early in January, for the city
market.
[12] Page 41--_Ikuta_, the name of the hamlet, has the same _sound_,
though it is written differently, as the Chinese character for numerous.
[13] Page 42--The Chinese character for the name _Ono_ reads “little
field”; then there is the suggestion that there is little in the way of
green sprouts yet.
[14] Page 42--The word “prize” is left out in the original out of
politeness.
[15] The three parts of this song are chanted in different tones.
[16] Page 43--Quotation from an old poem. The stanza speaks of the
attractiveness of village maidens gathering young leaves.
[17] Page 43--Quotation from an old poem. The owner of the field is
hoping that the time will soon come for plucking the shoots. He is
impatient, and sends the watchman to see if it is not yet time. This
idea leads up to “Likewise dost haste” in one of the following lines.
[18] Page 43--A part of another old stanza.
[19] Page 44--Still another quotation from an old poem, introduced for
the word _furu_. “To fall” and “old” are both _furu_ in Japanese, and
“older leaves” in one of the following lines is _furu ha_.
[20] Page 44--_i. e._ Purple. As is common in Japanese poetry, the word
purple is not actually used, but is called “the related colour.” As a
colour the Japanese word _Murasaki_ is purple, and it is also applied
to a herb with deep purple-coloured flowers. This plant’s colour is
so intensely purple that all the herbs growing near it are supposed
to show the same colour. From such an idea purple colour is known in
poetry as _Yukari no iro_ (the related colour). In the present lines
part of an old stanza is introduced for the sake of recalling the word
_murasaki_, and this in turn leads on to _yukari no na_ in the first
line of the Chorus.
[21] Page 44--According to an old tale a lover, crossing a pontoon
bridge, fell between the boats and was drowned. The Chorus supposes the
heroine to be thinking, “Like this man I too died because of love, and
the ‘Bridge of Love’ is a name which is _related_ (see note 11) to my
own destiny.”
[22] Page 45--The Shepherd’s Purse is one of the seven herbs. Chōan is
in China, and the old name of China was _Kara_, so that the mention of
Chōan brings _Kara_ to mind, which in turn suggests the word _karai_,
hot, used in the next line.
[23] Page 45--The dawn is sometimes called the “whitening” in Japanese.
[24] Note the change of person, of course she has really been speaking
of herself from the beginning.
[25] Page 47--_Ikuta_ means the living field, or field of life, and as
she is about to die the name is meaningless to her.
[26] Page 47--Depending on an old poem in which the short growth of the
summer horns is used to express the idea of brief time. An alternative
translation of this line would be, “Short is my night’s sleep, short
are a stag’s horns,” but these words do not convey to an English reader
anything like the meaning the Japanese carries. In the original the
word _tsuka_ means either a “tomb” or a “grasp,” and it acts as a pivot
word. In the sense of “tomb” it leads to the weeds growing on her tomb,
which is the essential part; and in the sense of “grasp” it suggests
shortness, and inasmuch as a stag’s horns are so short in summer as to
be within the grasp of a hand, their shortness is suggested, and this
in turn suggests a night’s sleep in summer. This train of thought would
probably not occur had it not been rendered a classical picture by an
old and well-known stanza.
[27] Page 48--He is using the words of the Buddhist scriptures. Though
in popular belief the hells and torments, as well as the world, exist,
yet the higher philosophy of Buddhism holds that all is appearance
only, and that the soul that realises this frees itself from the
sufferings and restrictions of the grosser existence.
[28] Page 52--Popular Buddhistic teaching postulates eight hells, (1)
The hell of equality, where all sinners go first. (2) The hell of black
rope, where they are tied and led by devil-jailors to (3) the hell
of gathering. Then comes (4) the hell of cries, (5) of bitter cries,
(6) the hell of heat, (7) of utmost heat, and lastly (8) the hell of
infinite depth.
KAGEKIYO[29]
Authorship of the Play
This Play was probably written about 1410; at any rate in the first
quarter of the fifteenth century. Its author was _Motokiyo_, who was
born in 1374 and who died in 1455. He was the eldest son of the famous
Kiyotsugu (see p. 7).
Outline of the Story
The time of the action of the play is about the year 1190, and
Kagekiyo, the hero of the story, is a very renowned warrior of the
Taira clan. The Taira and the Minamoto (Gen) clans were rivals and were
perpetually at war; during the years 1156-1185 more particularly this
struggle culminated, when Japan had her “Wars of the Roses.”
Kagekiyo, known as the Boisterous, owing to his uneven temper and ready
appeals to arms, was a famous warrior of the Taira clan, and when the
Minamoto Shōgunate was established at Kamakura, Kagekiyo was exiled to
a distant place in Hiuga, where he became blind and passed a miserable
existence as a beggar. He had a daughter called Hitomaru, whom he left
in Kamakura in the charge of a lady. At the time of the play, Hitomaru
has just grown up to be a young lady, but she had a great desire to
meet her father, and so set out with a servant to seek him. She has a
long and arduous journey to the place of her father’s exile, and after
enduring considerable hardships she at last finds Kagekiyo’s retreat.
She and her servant encounter a villager who assists them in the final
search for Kagekiyo, and they make inquiries of a blind beggar dwelling
in a miserable straw hut. This beggar is actually Kagekiyo, but at
first he refuses to answer them or to acknowledge it, out of shame and
consideration for his daughter. Ultimately, however, he recounts to her
some of his adventures, and then he commands her to leave him and they
part for ever.
Comments on the Play
In this play there is perhaps less description of the beauties of
Nature than in many of the _Nō_, but the opening lines are particularly
fraught with the meaning which permeates the whole play.
The dew remains until the wind doth blow.
The comparison of human life to a drop of dew is one frequently made in
the literature of the _Nō_. Throughout this play there are many phrases
showing how deeply the characters feel the transitoriness of human
life. After Hitomaru’s longing for a place to rest a little while,
Kagekiyo exclaims--
Nay, in the three worlds there is not a place.
Kagekiyo’s behaviour to his child, and his reception of her after
her long search for him, appears to us to be most cruel; but it is,
nevertheless, based on the conceptions of the chivalry of his time.
Kagekiyo’s leading thought was the really unselfish desire to keep the
shame of his condition from touching his daughter. His first wish is
that she shall not even recognise or speak with him; but when this is
frustrated, he commands both the servant and the villager to send her
back immediately their short meeting is over. And yet he does not seek
even a moment’s embrace, nor does he use an endearing phrase to his
daughter. The play is a good illustration of the way that the old codes
of Japanese chivalry imposed courses of action which seem now in this
softer age well-nigh inhuman in their repression and conquest of the
natural feelings.
KAGEKIYO[30]
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Kagekiyo _Shite_
Hitomaru, Kagekiyo’s daughter _Tsure_
Servant to Hitomaru
Villager _Waki_
Chorus
SCENE
A mountain side at Miyasaki in the province of Hiuga. Time about 1190.
HITOMARU AND SERVANT
The dew remains until the wind doth blow,
The dew remains until the wind doth blow.
My own life fleeting as a drop of dew,
What will become of me as time does pass?
HITOMARU
My name is Hitomaru, and I am
A maiden, who in Kamakura[31] dwells.
My father’s name is Kagekiyo, called
By some the Boisterous, and he is a friend
Of the Hei[32] clan, the Taira family
And so is by the Gen[32] house hated much.
To Miyasaki exiled, in Hiuga
He deigns, in shame, long months and years to pass.
To travel unaccustomed, I am tired,
And yet inevitable weariness
I mitigate by thinking of my quest,
And I am strengthened for my father’s sake.
HITOMARU AND SERVANT
The tears of anxious sleep run down my cheek
And to the dew upon the pillowing grass
Add drops that drench my sleeves.
From Sagami the province we set out,
From Sagami the province we set out,
Asking from those we met, the road to take
Toward our destination. And we passed
The province Tōtōmi,[33] and crossed by boat
The distant bay. And Mikana we passed,
By Mikana, spanned o’er with bridges eight.
Oh, would that we could grow accustomed soon
To our short nights of sleep that we might dream
Of the high capital above the clouds,
Of the high capital above the clouds.
SERVANT
Endeavoured as you honourably have
To hasten on the way, already now
This is Miyasaki, as it is called,
To Hiuga you have honourably come.
This is the place to honourably ask
Your honourable father’s whereabouts.
KAGEKIYO
[_Evident to the audience, but supposed to be hidden from the other
actors._]
The pine trees that have seen long months and years
Entwine themselves to form the arching bowers.
Yet I, debarred from the clear light of day
Discern no sign that time is passing by.
Here idly in a dark and lowly hut
I sleep the time away. The seasons change
But not for heat nor cold my clothes are planned
And to a skeleton my frame has waned.
CHORUS
If one has got to leave the world, then black,
Black should his sleeves be dyed. Then surely black
His sleeves should all be dyed, and yet my sleeves--
Oh, more inglorious! So utterly
Worn out and waned my state that I myself
Feel much averse unto my wretched self.
So who could be benevolent enough
To visit such a state of misery?
No one inquiring of my misery
Will ever come.
No one inquiring of my misery
Will ever come.
HITOMARU
Incredible that one should dwell within
That wretched hut, it does not seem to be
Fit for a habitation. Strangely though
I heard a voice proceeding from its wall.
A beggar’s dwelling it must be. I fear,
And from the lowly dwelling keep away.
KAGEKIYO
That autumn now has come I cannot see,
And yet I feel it for the wind has brought
Tidings from somewhere, tho’ I know not whence.
HITOMARU
Ah, knowing not my father’s whereabouts
In misery I wander, with no place
Where I can rest even a little while.
KAGEKIYO
Nay, in the three worlds there is not a place,
’Tis only in the heavenly expanse.[34]
Choose any man and ask him, he will say
“Where else!” And what else could he ever say?
SERVANT
How now, you in the thatched hut, I would ask
A question of you.
KAGEKIYO
Well; what is it then?
SERVANT
Knowest thou where dwells an exiled man?
KAGEKIYO
An exile though he be, what is his name?
SERVANT
The Boist’rous Kagekiyo is he called,
And of the Taira house, a warrior.
KAGEKIYO
Yes, yes, I think that I have heard of him,
Though being blind the man I’ve never seen.
Miserable, his honourable state!
To hear of which stirs pity in my breast.
Pray then inquire elsewhere the full account.
SERVANT
Then hereabouts he does not seem to be.
[_To his mistress_]
But further on we should inquire again
If you will honourably now proceed.
KAGEKIYO
She who has just been here--Why! is she not
The very child of this selfsame blind man?
Once, very long ago, at Atsuta
I met a woman, and this child I got.
It was a girl,[35] and so I trusted her
To Kamegaegatsu’s châtelaine.
Now grieving parent meets with child estranged;
She, speaking to her father, knows it not.
CHORUS
Her form unseen, although I hear her voice,
How sad my blindness is! Without a word
I let her pass. And yet such action is
Due truly to the bond of parent’s love,
Due truly to the bond of parent’s love.
SERVANT
How now, you there! Art thou a villager?
VILLAGER
And to the Villager what hast thou then
Of honourable business?
SERVANT
Dost thou know
Where lives an exiled man?
VILLAGER
What sort of man--
An exile though he be--of whom you ask?
SERVANT
A warrior of the Hei house, and called
Kagekiyo the Boist’rous, him I seek.
VILLAGER
Just now as thou hast come along this way
Upon the hill-side, was there not a hut,
A hut with thatch, and somebody within?
SERVANT
Yes, a blind beggar sat within the hut.
VILLAGER
Aye. That blind beggar is the man you seek,
The very Kagekiyo whom you seek!
How strange! When I said Kagekiyo’s name
That honourable lady there did deign
To show a look of sadness. Why was that?
SERVANT
Thy wonder is most reasonable. Naught
Shall I conceal from thee. Kagekiyo’s
Most honourable daughter is the maid
Who hopes once more her honoured sire to meet.
That being so, and as from far away
She has come hither, I pray thee devise
Some proper way of speaking face to face
With Kagekiyo.
VILLAGER
Oh, unutterable!
Is she his honourable daughter then?
Well, calm your heart, and pray you deign to hear.
The sight of both eyes Kagekiyo lost;
So helpless, he cut short his hair and called
Himself Kōtau of Hiuga and he begs
For his poor living from the travellers,
And with the pity of such lowly folk
As we ourselves, he just sustains his life.
And that he doth not tell his name must be
Shame for the contrast with the olden days.
At once I shall go with you and call out
“Kagekiyo”--and if it is his name
Then will he answer and you can observe
Him face to face, and of the distant past
And of the present you shall tell him all.
Pray come this way.
Holloa! in the thatched hut
Is Kagekiyo there within? Is there
The boisterous Kagekiyo?
KAGEKIYO
Worrying,
Worrying, even if my state were well.
And even though these people came from home,
Shame for this very self compels me now
Without my name to let them go--and yet--
And yet it rends my heart and the sad tears
As of a thousand streams run down my sleeves.
I waken with the thought that earthly things
Are naught, and but as visions in a dream.
I am resolved in this world now to be
As one who is not, and if they will call
This beggar Kagekiyo, why reply?
Moreover in this province I’ve a name--
CHORUS
That name in Hiuga facing to the sun,[36]
In Hiuga, facing to the sun is not
The name they call, but they return to one
Of the old days, discarded long ago,
Which with my helplessly dropped bow I dropped.
Wild thoughts again I never will excite
And yet I’m angry.
KAGEKIYO
Though while here I live
In this place.
CHORUS