by Arthur Waley
CHORUS
So with mighty voice he called them to him, and they, raising their war-cry, leapt to the assauit.
(Speaking for USHIWAKA.)
"Hoho! What a to-do! Himself has come, undaunted by the fate of those he sent before him. Now, Hachiman,* look down upon me, for no other help is here." So he prayed, and stood waiting at the gap.
(Speaking for KUMASAKA.)
"Sixty-three years has Kumasaka lived, and today shall make his last night-assault."* So he spoke and kicking off his iron-shoes in a twinkling he levelled his great battle-sword that measured five foot three, and as he leapt forward like a great bird pouncing on his prey, no god or demon had dared encounter him.
(Speaking for USHIWAKA.)
"Ha, bandit! Be not so confident! These slinking night-assaults displease me"; and leaving him no leisure, the boy dashed in to the attack.
Then, Kumasaka, deeply versed in use of the battle-sword, lunged with his left foot and in succession he executed The Ten-Side Cut, The Eight-Side Sweep, The Body Wheel, The Hanyū Turn, The Wind The Flower Double Roll, The Blade Drop, The Gnashing Lion, The Maple-Leaf Double,
Now fire dances at the sword-points;
Now the sword-backs clash.
At last even the great battle-sword has spent its art. Parried by the little belt-sword of Zōshi,* it has become no more than a guard-sword.
(Speaking for KUMASAKA.)
"This sword-play brings me no advantage; I will close with him and try my strength!"
Then he threw down his battle-sword and spreading out his great hands rushed wildly forward. But Ushiwaka dodged him, and as he passed mowed round at his legs.
The robber fell with a crash, and as he struggled to rise
The belt-sword of Ushiwaka smote him clean through the waist.
And Kumasaka that had been one man
Lay cloven in twain.
BENKEI ON THE BRIDGE
(HASHI-BENKEI)
By Hiyoshi Sa-ami Yasukiyo
(Date unknown, probably first half of the fifteenth century.)
PERSONS
BENKEI FOLLOWER
USHIWAKA CHORUS
BENKEI
I am one who lives near the Western Pagoda. My name is Musashibō Benkei. In fulfillment of a certain vow I have been going lately by night at the hour of the Ox* to worship at the Gojō Temple. Tonight is the last time; I ought soon to be starting.
Hie! Is any one there?
FOLLOWER
Here I am.
BENKEI
I sent for you to tell you that I shall be going to the Gojō Temple tonight
FOLLOWER
I tremble and listen. But there is a matter that I must bring to your notice. I hear that yesterday there was a boy of twelve or thirteen guarding the Gojō Bridge. They say he was slashing round with his short sword as nimble as a bird or butterfly. I beg that you will not make your pilgrimage tonight. Do not court this peril.
BENKEI
That's a strange thing to ask! Why, were he demon or hobgob-lin, he could not stand alone against many. We will surround him and you shall soon see him on his knees.
FOLLOWER
They have tried surrounding him, but he always escapes as though by magic, and none is able to lay hands on him.
BENKEI
When he seems within their grasp
FOLLOWER
From before their eyes
BENKEI
Suddenly he vanishes.
CHORUS
This strange hobgoblin, elfish apparition,
Into great peril may bring
The reverend limbs of my master.
In all this City none can withstand the prowess
Of this unparalleled monster.
BENKEI
If this is as you say, I will not go tonight; and yet...No. It is not to be thought of that such a one as Benkei should be affrighted by a tale. Tonight when it is dark I will go to the bridge and humble this arrogant elf.
CHORUS
And while he spoke,
Evening already to the western sky had come;
Soon the night-wind had shattered and dispersed
The shapes of sunset. Cheerless night
Came swiftly, but with step too slow
For him who waits.
(A Comic interlude played by a bow-master is sometimes used here to fill in the time while BENKEI is arming himself.)
USHIWAKA
I am Ushiwaka. I must do as my mother told me; "Go up to the Temple* at daybreak," she said. But it is still night. I will go to Gojō Bridge and wait there till suddenly
Moonlight mingles with the rising waves;
No twilight closes
The autumn day, but swiftly
The winds of night bring darkness.
CHORUS (speaking for USHIWAKA)
Oh! beauty of the waves!
High beats my heart, High as their scattered pearls!
Waves white as dewy calabash† at dawn,
By Gojō Bridge.
Silently the night passes,
No sound but my own feet upon the wooden planks
Clanking and clanking; still I wait
And still in vain.
BENKEI
The night grows late. Eastward the bells of the Three Pagodas toll.
By the moonlight that gleams through leaves of these thick
cedar-trees I gild my armor on;
I fasten the black thongs of my coat of mail.
I adjust its armored skirts.
By the middle I grasp firmly
My great halberd that I have loved so long.
I lay it across my shoulder; with leisurely step stride forward.
Be he demon or hobgoblin, how shall he stand against me?
Such trust have I in my own prowess. Oh, how I long
For a foeman worthy of my hand!
USHIWAKA
The river-wind blows keen;
The night is almost spent,
But none has crossed the Bridge.
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 Kujō.*
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 yūgao or calabash. There is a reference to Lady Yūgao (see p. 117, who lived at Gojō.
* Because he was a priest.
* I.e. three incarnations.
+ Ushiwaka's home.
KAGEKIYO
By Seami
PERSONS
A GIRL (Kagekiyo's daughter)
HER ATTENDANT
KAGEKIYO THE PASSIONATE CHORUS
A VILLAGER
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 Hyūga, 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 Tōtōmi, 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 Hyūga. 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?
