Plays

the million waves. Yamauba Behold, the wonder of my sylvan home, with the lofty mountains, and the seas anear! The valley is deep. Faraway the water resounds. Chorus The boundless sea before me nestles the moon, tranquil in her heart; the deep pine forests behind will scatter away life’s delusive dream with a wand of magic wind. Yamauba Here in the empty valley is no voice to be heard, here are only the fireflies on wings. No echoes run from tree to tree, no bird is alarmed. Chorus The peak of Hosho no Mine Mountain makes one aspire toward a peak of Nirvana; the bottomless depth of the Mumyo valley makes him lament over the bottomless delusion of human life. This Yamauba, the mountain she-devil, knows not where she was born or where is her home. Carried ever by a cloud or water, she does know no place where she can not wander. Sometimes she helps the poor woodman with his heaviest load, and kindly sees him off out of a mountain with the sunken moon. Sometimes she slides herself into the weaver’s busy window, and lightens the work of the woman with tangled threads. Yamauba But she is not a human being⁠— Chorus as light as a cloud, as free as the water, she will transform herself into any existence, at her momentary whim. Since good and wrong are the same, nothing different, she embraces the Buddha’s understanding as well as the human fallacy. There is a Buddha, and so here is human being too⁠—a Buddha, when you attain to perception, and a mere human, when you are caught by deception. There is the human being, and so here is a Yamauba too. Oh! What varied lives! What an interesting world! Oh what a beautiful Nature! Behold, the willow leaves ever so green, the flowers ever so red! Oh, be true like Nature herself! Yamauba What am I? What am I?⁠—I am nothing but the ever wandering spirit of life, when called by spring in the trees, to wander round a mountain for the smiling flower;⁠— Chorus in autumn⁠— Yamauba to wander after the lovely shadow of the moon;⁠— Chorus in winter⁠— Yamauba to wander for the flashing beauty of snow. Chorus Oh! What a sight to see how the dark ghost wanders round the mountain! Yamauba How restless I am in the human delusion, bound with the sad transmigrating pains! Chorus Yamauba born out of life’s dusts, this mountain she-devil. Oh, how she wanders round the mountain, nay, Life⁠— Yamauba now running up the rocks⁠— Chorus then dashing down the valley. Yamauba By mountain on mountain⁠— Chorus over water on water⁠— Yamauba —behold, Yamauba wanders, and now away disappears⁠— Chorus now away disappears. Oh! Where has she gone, this wandering restless ghost!

Atsumori

Introduction

In the eleventh century two powerful clans, the Taira and the Minamoto, contended for mastery. In 1181 Kiyomori the chief of the Tairas died, and from that time their fortunes declined. In 1183 they were forced to flee from Kyōto, carrying with them the infant Emperor. After many hardships and wanderings they camped on the shores of Suma, where they were protected by their fleet.

Early in 1184 the Minamotos attacked and utterly routed them at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani, near the woods of Ikuta. At this battle fell Atsumori, the nephew of Kiyomori, and his brother Tsunemasa.

When Kumagai, who had slain Atsumori, bent over him to examine the body, he found lying beside him a bamboo-flute wrapped in brocade. He took the flute and gave it to his son.

The bay of Suma is associated in the mind of a Japanese reader not only with this battle but also with the stories of Prince Genji and Prince Yukihira.

A recitation concerning Atsumori’s death takes place in the Interlude between the two Acts. These interludes are subject to variation and are not considered part of the literary text of the play.

Characters

• The Priest Rensei (formerly the warrior Kumagai).

• A Young Reaper, who turns out to be the ghost of Atsumori.

• His companion.

• Chorus.

Act I

Priest	Life is a lying dream, he only wakes Who casts the World aside. I am Kumagai no Naozane, a man of the country of Musashi. I have left my home and call myself the priest Rensei; this I have done because of my grief at the death of Atsumori, who fell in battle by my hand. Hence it comes that I am dressed in priestly guise. And now I am going down to Ichi-no-Tani to pray for the salvation of Atsumori’s soul. He walks slowly across the stage, singing a song descriptive of his journey. I have come so fast that here I am already at Ichi-no-Tani, in the country of Tsu. Truly the past returns to my mind as though it were a thing of today. But listen! I hear the sound of a flute coming from a knoll of rising ground. I will wait here till the flute-player passes, and ask him to tell me the story of this place.
Reapers	To the music of the reaper’s flute No song is sung But the sighing of wind in the fields.
Young reaper	They that were reaping, Reaping on that hill, Walk now through the fields Homeward, for it is dusk.
Reapers	Short is the way that leads From the sea of Suma back to my home. This little journey, up to the hill And down to the shore again, and up to the hill⁠— This is my life, and the sum of hateful tasks. If one should ask me I too would answer That on the shores of Suma I live in sadness. Yet if any guessed my name, Then might I too have friends. But now from my deep misery Even those that were dearest Are grown estranged. Here must I dwell abandoned To one thought’s anguish: That I must dwell here.
Priest	Hey, you reapers! I have a question to ask you.
Young reaper	Is it to us you are speaking? What do you wish to know?
Priest	Was it one of you who was playing on the flute just now?
Young reaper	Yes, it was we who were playing.
Priest	It was a pleasant sound,