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.
