The Noh Plays of Japan

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The Noh Plays of Japan Page 13

by Arthur Waley


  Such, in outline, is the most usual version of the story of Ro-sei's dream at Kantan. The earliest form in which we know it is the "Pillow Tale" of the Chinese writer Li Pi, who lived from 722 to 789 A.D.

  It is interesting to see how Seami deals with a subject which seems at first sight so impossible to shape into a Noh play. The "sage" is eliminated, and in the dream Rosei immediately becomes Emperor of Central China. This affords an excuse for the Court dances which form the central "ballet" of the piece. In the second half, as in Hagoromo and other plays, the words are merely an accompaniment to the dancing.

  Chamberlain's version loses by the fact that it is made from the ordinary printed text which omits the prologue and all the speeches of the hostess.

  The play is usually attributed to Seami, but it is not mentioned in his Works, nor in the list of plays by him drawn up by his great-grandson in 1524.

  It is discussed at considerable length in the Later Kwadensho, which was printed c. 1600. TNo pen could write its wohe writer of that book must therefore have regarded the play as a work of Seami's period. It should be mentioned that the geography of the play is absurd. Though both his starting-point and goal lie in the south-western province of Ssechuan, he passes through Hantan,* which lay in the northern province of Chih-li.

  KANTAN

  PERSONS

  HOSTESS

  TWO LITTER BEARERS

  ROSEI

  BOY DANCER

  ENVOY

  TWO COURTIERS

  CHORUS

  HOSTESS

  I who now stand before you am a woman of the village of Kan-tan in China. A long while ago I gave lodging to one who practiced the arts of wizardry; and as payment he left here a famous pillow, called the Pillow of Kantan. He who sleeps on this pillow sees in a moment's dream the past or future spread out before him, and so awakes illumined. If it should chance that any worshipful travelers arrive today, pray send for me.

  (She takes the pillow and lays it on the covered "dais" which represents at first the bed and afterwards the palace.)

  ROSEI (enters)

  Lost on the journey of life, shall I learn at last

  That I trod but a path of dreams?

  My name is Rosei, and I have come from the land of Shoku. Though born to man's estate, I have not sought Buddha's way, but have drifted from dusk to dawn and dawn to dusk.

  They tell me that on the Hill of the Flying Sheep in the land of So* there lives a mighty sage; and now I am hastening to visit him that he may tell by what rule I should conduct my life.

  (Song of Travel.)

  Deep hid behind the alleys of the sky

  Lie the far lands where I was wont to dwell.

  Over the hills I trail

  A tattered cloak; over the hills again:

  Fen-duskand mountain-dusk and village-dusk

  Closed many times about me, till today

  At the village of Kantan,

  Strange to me save in name, my journey ends.

  I have traveled so fast that I am already come to the village of Kantan. Though the sun is still high, I will lodge here tonight(Knocking.) May I come in?

  HOSTESS

  Who is it?

  ROSEI

  I am a traveler; pray give me lodging for the night.

  HOSTESS

  Yes, I can give you lodging; pray come this way...You seem to be traveling all alone. Tell me where you have come from and where you are going.

  ROSEI

  I come from the land of Shoku. They tell me that on the Hill of the Flying Sheep there lives a sage; and I am visiting him that he may tell me by what rule I should conduct my life.

  HOSTESS

  It is a long way to the Hill of the Flying Sheep. Listen! A wizard once lodged here and gave us a marvellous pillow called the Pillow of Kantan: he who sleeps on it sees all his future in a moment's dream.

  ROSEI

  Where is this pillow?

  HOSTESS

  It is on the bed.

  ROSEI

  I will go and sleep upon it.

  HOSTESS

  And I meanwhile will heat you some millet at the fire.

  ROSEI (going to the bed)

  So this is the pillow, the Pillow of Kantan that I have heard such strange tales of? Heaven has guided me to it, that I who came out to learn the secret of life may taste the world in a dream.

  As one whose course swift summer-rain has stayed,

  Unthrifty of the noon he turned aside

  To seek a wayside dream;

  Upon the borrowed Pillow of Kantan

  He laid his head and slept.

  (While ROSEI is still chanting these words, the ENVOY enters, followed by two ATTENDANTS who carry a litter. The ENVOY raps on the post of the bed.)

  ENVOY

  Rosei, Rosei! I must speak with you.

  (ROSEI, who has been lying with his fan over his face, rises when the ENVOY begins to speak.)

  ROSEI

  But who are you?

  ENVOY

  I am come as a messenger to tell you that the Emperor of the Land of So* resigns his throne and commands that Rosei shall reign in his stead.

  ROSEI

  Unthinkable! I a king? But for what reason am I assigned this task?

  ENVOY

  I cannot venture to determine. Doubtless there were found in your Majesty's countenance auspicious tokens, signs that you must rule the land. Let us lose no time; pray deign to enter this palanquin.

  ROSEI (looking at the palanquin in astonishment)

  What thing is this?

  A litter spangled with a dew of shining stones?

  I am not wont to ride. Such splendor! Oh, little thought I

  When first my weary feet trod unfamiliar roads

  In kingly state to be borne to my journey's end.

  Is it to Heaven I ride?

  CHORUS

  In jeweled palanquin

  On the Way of Wisdom you are borne; here shall you learn

  That the flower of glory fades like a moment's dream.

  See, you are become a cloud-man of the sky.*

  The palaces of ancient kings

  Rise up before you, Abō's Hall, the Dragon's Tower;†

  High over the tall clouds their moonlit gables gleam.

  The light wells and wells like a rising tide.‡

  Oh splendid vision! A courtyard strewn

  With golden and silver sand;

  And they that at the four sides

  Pass through the jeweled door are canopied

  With a crown of woven light.

  In the Cities of Heaven, in the home of Gods, I had thought,

  Shine such still beams on walls of stone;

  Never on palace reared by hands of men.

  Treasures, a thousand kinds, ten thousand kinds,

  Tribute to tribute joined, a myriad vassal-kings

  Cast down before the Throne.

  Flags of a thousand lords, ten thousand lords

  Shine many-colored in the sky,

  And the noise of their wind-flapping

  Rolls round the echoing earth.

  ROSEI

  And in the east

  CHORUS

  Over a silver hill of thirty cubits height A golden sun-wheel rose.

  ROSEI

  And in the west

  Over a golden hill of thirty cubits height

  A silver moon-wheel rose,

  To prove his words who sang

  "In the Palace of Long Life*

  The Springs and Autumns cease.

  Before the Gate of Endless Youth†

  The days and months pass slow."‡

  COURTIER

  I would address your Majesty. Your Majesty has reigned for fifty years. Deign but to drink this drink and you shall live a thousand years. See! I bring you the nectar and the grail.

  ROSEI

  The nectar?

  COURTIER

  It is the wine that Immortals drink.

  ROSEI

  Th
e grail?

  COURTIER

  It is the cup from which they drink.

  ROSEI

  The magic wine! A thousand generations shall pass

  COURTIER

  Or ever the springtime of your glory fade.

  ROSEI

  I bountiful...

  COURTIER

  Your people prosperous.

  CHORUS

  Forever and ever

  The land secure;

  The flower of glory waxing;

  The "herb of increase," joy-increasing

  Into the cup we pour.

  See! from hand to hand it goes.

  "I will drink," he cries.

  ROSEI

  Go circling, magic cup,

  CHORUS

  Circling from hand to hand;*

  As at the Feast of Floating Cups†

  Hands thrust from damask sleeves detain

  The goblet whirling in the eager stream;

  Now launched, now landed!‡

  Oh merry flashing light, that shall endure

  Long as the Silver Chalice§ circles space.

  BOY DANCER

  The white chrysanthem-dew,

  CHORUS

  "The dew of the flowers dripping day by day

  In how many thousand years

  Will it have grown into a pool?"*

  It shall not fail, it shall not fail,

  The fountain of our Immortality;

  He draws, and yet it wells;

  He drinks, and to his taste it is as sweet

  As the Gods' deathless food.

  His heart grows airy; day and night

  In unimagined revel, incomparable pride and glory

  Eternally shall pass.

  (End of the BOY DANCER'S dance. ROSEI, who has been watching this dance, now springs up in ecstasy to dance the Gaku or Court Dance.)

  ROSEI

  The spring-time of my glory fades not...

  CHORUS

  Many times shall you behold

  The pale moon of dawn...

  ROSEI

  This is the moon-men's dance;

  Cloud-like the feathery sleeves pile up; the song of joy

  From dusk to dawn I sing.

  CHORUS

  All night we sing.

  The sun shines forth again,

  Sinks down, and it is night...

  ROSEI

  Nay, dawn has come!

  CHORUS

  We thought the morning young, and lo! the moon

  ROSEI

  Again is bright.

  CHORUS

  Spring scarce has opened her fresh flowers,

  ROSEI

  When leaves are crimson-dyed.

  CHORUS

  Summer is with us yet;

  ROSEI

  Nay, the snow falls.

  CHORUS (speaking for ROSEI)

  "I watched the seasons pass:

  Spring, summer, autumn, winter; a thousand trees,

  A thousand flowers were strange and lovely in their pride.

  So the time sped, and now

  Fifty years of glory have passed by me,

  And because they were a dream,

  (At this point an ATTENDANT brings back the pillow, and places it in the "palace," which becomes a bed again.)

  All, all has vanished and I wake

  On the pillow where I laid my head,

  The Pillow of Kantan.

  (The BOY DANCER and the two COURTIERS slip out by the side-door "kirido"; ROSEI has mounted the bed and is asleep.)

  HOSTESS (tapping twice with her fan)

  Listen, traveler! Your millet is ready. Come quickly and eat your dinner.

  ROSEI (rising slowly from the bed)

  Rosei has woken from his dream...

  CHORUS

  Woken from his dream! The springs and autumns of fifty years Vanished with all their glory; dazed he rises from the bed.

  ROSEI

  Whither are they gone that were so many...

  CHORUS

  "The queens and waiting-ladies? What I thought their voices"

  ROSEI

  Were but the whisperings of wind in the trees.

  CHORUS

  The palaces and towers

  ROSEI

  Were but the baiting-house of Kantan.

  CHORUS

  The time of my glory,

  ROSEI

  Those fifty years,

  CHORUS

  Were but the space of a dream,

  ROSEI

  Dreamed while a bowl of millet cooked!

  CHORUS

  It is the Inscrutable, the Mystery.

  ROSEI

  Yet when I well consider Man's life in the world of men...

  CHORUS

  Then shall you find that a hundred years of gladness

  Fade as a dream when Death their sequence closes.

  Thus too has ended

  This monarch's fifty years of state.

  Ambition, length of days,

  Revels and kingly rule,

  All, all has ended thus, all was a dream

  Dreamed while the millet cooked.

  ROSEI

  Glory be to the Trinity,* Glory to the Trinity!

  CHORUS

  Seek you a sage to loose

  The bonds that bound you to life's woes?

  This pillow is the oracle you sought.

  Now shall the wayfarer, content to learn

  What here he learnt, that Life is but a dream,

  Turn homeward from the village of Kantan.

  THE HŌKA PRIESTS

  (HOKAZŌ)

  By Zenchiku Ujinobu (1414-1499)

  PERSONS

  MAKINO

  NOBUTOSHI (there father's murderer)

  HIS BROTHER

  NOBUTOSHI'S SERVENT

  MAKINO

  My name is Kojiro; I am the son of one Makino no Sayemon who lived in the land of Shimotsuke. You must know that my father had a quarrel with Nobutoshi, a man of Sagami, and was done to death by him. So this man was my father's murderer and I ought to kill him. But he has many bold fellows to stand by him, while I am all alone. So the days and months slip by with nothing done.

  A brother indeed I have, but he left home when he was a child, made himself into a priest, and lives at the seminary near by.

  I am much puzzled how to act. I think I will go across and speak to my brother of this matter. (He goes to the curtain at the end of the hashigakari.) May I come in?

  (The curtain is raised and the BROTHER appears.)

  BROTHER

  Who is it?

  MAKINO

  It is I.

  BROTHER

  Come in, brother. What has brought you hither?

  MAKINO

  I will tell you. It is this matter of our father's murder that has brought me. I have been thinking that I ought to kill his enemy, and would have done so but he has many bold fellows to stand by him and I am all alone. So the days and months slip by and nothing is done.

  For pity's sake, decide with me what course we must pursue.

  BROTHER

  Brother, what you have said is true enough. But have you forgotten that I left my home when I was but a child and made myself a priest? Since that is so, I cannot help you.

  MAKINO

  So you are pleased to think; but men say he is a bad son who does not kill his father's foe.

  BROTHER

  Can you tell me of any that have ministered to piety by slaying a parent's foe?

  MAKINO

  Why, yes. It was in China, I think. There was one whose mother had been taken by a savage tiger. "I will take vengeance," he cried, and for a hundred days he lay ambushed in the fields waiting for the tiger to come. And once when he was walking on the hillside at dusk, he thought he saw his enemy, and having an arrow already on his bow-string, he shot with all his might. It was nothing but a great rock that he had seen, shaped like a tiger. But his arrow stuck so deep in the stone that blood gushed out from it. If then the stren
gth of piety is such that it can drive an arrow deep into the heart of a stone, take thought, I beseech you, whether you will not resolve to come with me.

  BROTHER

  You have cited me a notable instance. I am persuaded to resolve with you how this thing may be effected.

 

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