by Arthur Waley
LEADER.
So you are not troubled about him?
(A pause.)
PILGRIM
Listen, you pilgrims. Just now the Master said this boy was only tired with climbing. But now he is looking very strange. Ought we not to follow our Great Custom and hurl him into the valley?
LEADER
We ought to indeed. I must tell the Master. Sir, when I enquired before about the child you told me he was only tired with climbing; but now he is looking very strange.
Though I say it with dread, there has been from ancient times a Great Custom that those who fail should be cast down. All the pilgrims are asking that he should be thrown into the valley.
TEACHER
What, you would hurl this child into the valley?
LEADER
We would.
TEACHER
It is a Mighty Custom. I cannot gainsay it. But I have great pity in my heart for that creature. I will tell him tenderly of this Great Custom.
LEADER
Pray do so.
TEACHER
Listen carefully to me. It has been the law from ancient times that if any pilgrim falls sick on such journey as these he should be hurled into the valley—done suddenly to death. If I could take your place, how gladly I would die. But now I cannot help you.
BOY
I understand. I knew well that if I came on this journey I might lose my life.
Only at the thought
Of my dear mother,
How her tree of sorrow
For me must blossom
With flower of weeping—
I am heavy-hearted.
CHORUS
Then the pilgrims sighing
For the sad ways of the world
And the bitter ordinances of it,
Make ready for the hurling.
Foot to foot They stood together
Heaving blindly,
None guiltier than his neighbor.
And clods of earth after And flat stones they flung.*
IKENIYE
(THE POOL-SACRIFICE)
PART I
By Seami*
PERSONS
THE TRAVELER
THE INNKEEPER
HIS WIFE
THE PRIEST
HIS DAUGHTER
THE ACOLYTE
CHORUS
TRAVELER
I am a man who lives in the Capital. Maybe because of some great wrong I did in a former life... I have fallen into trouble and cannot go on living here.
I have a friend in the East country. Perhaps he would help me. I will take my wife and child and go at once to the ends of the East.
(He travels to the East, singing as he goes a song about the places through which he passes.)
We are come to the Inn. (Knocks at the door.) We are travelers. Pray give us shelter.
INNKEEPER
Lodging, do you say? Come in with me. This way. Tell me, where have you come from?
TRAVELER
I come from the Capital, and I am going down to the East to visit my friend.
INNKEEPER
Listen. I am sorry. There is something I must tell you privately.Whoever passes this night at the Inn must go tomorrow to the drawing of lots at the sacrifice. I am sorry for it, but you would do best to leave the Inn before dawn. Tell no one what I have said, and mind you start early.
TRAVELER
If we may sleep here now we will gladly start at dawn. (They lie down and sleep in the open courtyard. After a while they rise and start on their journey.)
Enter the PRIEST.
PRIEST
Hey! where are you?
Enter the ACOLYTE
ACOLYTE
Here I am.
PRIEST
I hear that three travelers stayed at the Inn last night and have left before dawn. Go after them and stop them.
ACOLYTE
I listen and obey. Hey, you travelers, go no further!
TRAVELER
Is it at us you are shouting?
ACOLYTE
Yes, indeed it is at you.
TRAVELER
And why should we stop? Tell me the reason.
ACOLYTE
He is right. It is not to be wondered at that he should ask the reason. (To the TRAVELER.) Listen. Each year at this place there is a sacrifice at the Pool. Today is the festival of this holy rite, and we ask you to join in it.
TRAVELER
I understand you. But it is for those that live here, those that were born children of this Deity, to attend his worship. Must a wanderer go with you because he chances to lodge here for a night?
(He turns to go.)
ACOLYTE
No, No! For all you say, this will not do.
PRIEST
Stay! Sir, we do not wonder that you should think this strange. But listen to me. From ancient times till now no traveler has ever lodged this night of the year at the Inn of Yoshiwara without attending the sacrifice at the Pool. If you are in a hurry, come quickly to the sacrifice, and then with a blessing set out again on your journey.
TRAVELER
I understand you. But, as I have said, for such rites as these you should take men born in the place...No, I still do not understand. Why should a fleeting traveler be summoned to this Pool-Sacrifice?
PRIEST
It is a Great Custom.
TRAVELER
That may be. I do not question that that is your rule. But I beg you, consider my case and excuse me.
PRIEST
Would you be the first to break a Great Custom that has been observed since ancient times?
TRAVELER
No, that is not what I meant. But if we are to discuss this matter, I must be plain with you...I am a man of the Capital. Perhaps because of some ill deed done in a former life I have suffered many troubles. At last I could no longer build the pathway of my life, so I took my wife and child and set out to seek my friend who lives in the East. Pray let me go on my way.
PRIEST
Indeed, indeed you have cause for distress. But from ancient times till now
Parents have been taken
And countless beyond all knowing
Wives and husbands parted.
Call this, if you will, the retribution of a former life. But now come with us quickly to the shores of the Holy Pool.
(Describing his own actions.)
So saying, the Priest and acolytes went forward.
WIFE and DAUGHTER
And the wife and child, crying "Oh what shall we do?" clutched at the father's sleeve.
TRAVELER
But the father could find no words to speak. He stood baffled, helpless...
PRIEST
They must not loiter. Divide them and drive them on!
ACOLYTE
So he drove them before him and they walked like...
TRAVELER
If true comparison were made...
CHORUS
Like guilty souls of the Dead
Driven to Judgment
By fiends reproachful;
Whose hearts unknowing
Like dew in daytime
To nothing dwindle.
Like sheep to shambles
They walk weeping,
No step without a tear
Till to the Pool they come.
PRIEST
Now we are come to the Pool, and by its edge are ranged the Priest, the acolytes, the virgins, and dancing-boys.
CHORUS
There is one doom-lot; Yet those that are thinking "Will it be mine?" They are a hundred, And many times a hundred.
PRIEST
Embracing, clasping hands...
CHORUS
Pale-faced
PRIEST
Sinking at heart
CHORUS
"On whom will it fall?"
Not knowing, thick as snow,
White snow of winter fall their prayers
To their clan-gods, "Protect us"...
Palm pressed to palm.
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PRIEST
At last the Priest mounted the dais, raised the lid of the box and counted the lots to see that there was one for each to take.
CHORUS
Then all the people came forward
To draw their lots.
And each when he unfolded his lot
And found it was not the First,
How glad he was!
But the traveler's daughter,
Knowing her fate,
Fell weeping to the earth.
PRIEST
Are there not three travelers? They have only drawn two lots. The First Lot is still undrawn. Tell them that one of them must draw it.
ACOLYTE
I listen and obey. Ho, you travelers, it is to you I am speaking. There are three of you, and you have only drawn two lots. The Priest says one of you must draw the First Lot.
TRAVELER
We have all drawn.
ACOLYTE
No, I am sure the young girl has not drawn her lot. Look, here it is. Yes, and it is the Doom-lot!
WIFE
The First Lot! How terrible!
Hoping to rear you to womanhood, we wandered blindly from the City and came down to the unknown country of the East. For your sake we set our hearts on this sad journey. If you are taken, what will become of us? How hideous!
DAUGHTER
Do not sob so! If you or my father had drawn this lot, what should I have done? But now it has fallen to me, and it is hard for you to let me go.
TRAVELER
What brave words! "If you or my father had drawn this lot..." There is great piety in that saying. (To his WIFE.)Come, do not sob so before all these people. We are both parents and must have like feelings. But from the time I set out to this holy lottery something told me that of the three of us one would be taken. Look! I am not crying.
WIFE
I thought as you did, yet...
It is too much! Can it all be real?
TRAVELER
The father said "I will not show weakness," yet while he was speaking bravely
Because she was his dear daughter
His secret tears
Could not be checked.
WIFE
Is this a dream or is it real?
(She clings to the daughter, wailing.)
PRIEST
Because the time had come
The Priest and his men
Stood waiting on the shore
CHORUS
They decked the boat with ribands
And upon a bed of water-herbs
They laid the maiden of the Pool.
PRIEST
The priest pulled the ribands
And spoke the words of prayer.
[In the second part of the play the dragon of the Pool is appeased and the girl restored to life.]
HATSUYUKI
(EARLY SNOW)
By Koparu Zembō Motoyasu (1453-1532).
PERSONS
EVENING MIST, a servant girl
A LADY, the Abbot's daughter
TWO NOBLE LADIES
THE SOUL OF THE BIRD HATSUYUKI ("Early Snow")
CHORUS
SCENE: The Great Temple at Izumo.
SERVANT
I am a servant at the Nyoroku Shrine in the Great Temple of Izumo. My name is Evening Mist. You must know that the Lord Abbot has a daughter, a beautiful lady and gentle as can be. And she keeps a tame bird that was given her a year ago, and because it was a lovely white bird she called it Hatsuyuki, Early Snow; and she loves it dearly.
I have not seen the bird today. I think I will go to the bird-cage and have a look at it.
(She goes to the cage.)
Mercy on us, the bird is not there! Whatever shall I say to my lady? But I shall have to tell her. I think I'll tell her now. Madam, madam, your dear Snow-bird is not here!
LADY
What is that you say? Early Snow is not there? It cannot be true.
(She goes to the cage.)
It is true. Early Snow has gone! How can that be? How can it be that my pretty one that was so tame should vanish and leave no trace?
Oh bitterness of snows
That melt and disappear!
Now do I understand
The meaning of a midnight dream
That lately broke my rest.
A harbinger it was
Of Hatsuyuki's fate.
(She bursts into tears.)
CHORUS
Though for such tears and sighs
There be no cause,
Yet came her grief so suddenly,
Her heart's fire is ablaze;
And all the while
Never a moment are her long sleeves dry.
They say that written letters first were traced
By feet of birds in sand
Yet Hatsuyuki leaves no testament.
(They mourn.)
CHORUS ("kuse" chant, irregular verse accompanied by dancing)
How sad to call to mind
When first it left the breeding-cage
So fair of form
And colored white as snow.
We called it Hatsuyuki, "Year's First Snow."
And where our mistress walked
It followed like a shadow at her side.
But now alas! it is a bird of parting*
Though not in Love's dark lane.
LADY
There's no help now. (She weeps bitterly.)
CHORUS
Still there is one way left. Stop weeping, Lady,
And turn your heart to him who vowed to hear.
The Lord Amida, if a prayer be said—
Who knows but he can bring
Even a bird's soul into Paradise
And set it on the Lotus Pedestal?*
LADY
Evening Mist, are you not sad that Hatsuyuki has gone?...But we must not cry any more. Let us call together the noble ladies of this place and for seven days sit with them praying behind barred doors. Go now and do my bidding.
(EVENING MIST fetches the NOBLE LADIES of the place).
TWO NOBLE LADIES (together)
A solemn Mass we sing
A dirge for the Dead;
At this hour of heart-cleansing
We beat on Buddha's gong.
(They pray.)
NAMU AMIDA BUTSU
NAMU NYORAI
Praise to Amida Buddha,
Praise to Mida our Saviour!
(The prayers and gong-beating last for some time and form the central ballet of the play.)
CHORUS (the bird's soul appears as a white speck in the sky)
Look! Look! A cloud in the clear mid-sky!
But it is not a cloud.
With pure white wings beating the air
The Snow-bird comes!
Flying towards our lady
Lovingly he hovers,
Dances before her.
THE BIRD'S SOUL
Drawn, by the merit of your prayers and songs
CHORUS
Straightway he was reborn in Paradise.
By the pond of Eight Virtues he walks abroad:
With the Phoenix and Fugan his playtime passing.
He lodges in the sevenfold summit of the trees of Heaven.
No hurt shall harm him
Forever and ever.
Now like the tasselled doves we loose
From battlements on holy days A little while he flutters;
Flutters a little while and then is gone
We know not where.
HAKU RAKUTEN
By Seami
INTRODUCTION
THE Chinese poet Po Chū-i, whom, the Japanese call Haku Rakuten, was born in 772 A.D. and died in 847. His works enjoyed immense contemporary popularity in China, Korea, and Japan. In the second half of the ninth century the composition of Chinese verse became fashionable at the Japanese Court, and native forms of poetry were for a time threatened with extinction.
The Noh play Haku Rakuten deals with this literary peril. It
was written at the end of the fourteenth century, a time when Japanese art and literature were again becoming subject to Chinese influence. Painting and prose ultimately succumbed, but poetry was saved.
Historically, Haku Rakuten never came to Japan. But the danger of his influence was real and actual, as may be deduced from reading the works of Sugawara no Michizane, the greatest Japanese poet of the ninth century. Michizane's slavish imitations of Po Chū-i show an unparalleled, example of literary prostration. The plot of the play is as follows:
Rakuten is sent by the Emperor of China to "subdue" Japan with his art. On arriving at the coast of Bizen, he meets with two Japanese fishermen. One of them is in reality the god of Japanese poetry, Sumiyoshi no Kami. In the second act his identity is revealed. He summons other gods, and a great dancing-scene ensues. Finally the wind from their dancing-sleeves blows the Chinese poet's ship back to his own country.
