Plays

and all the pleasanter because one does not look for such music from men of your condition. Young reaper

Unlooked for from men of our condition, you say!
Have you not read:⁠—
“Do not envy what is above you
Nor despise what is below you”?
Moreover the songs of woodmen and the flute-playing of herdsmen,
Flute-playing even of reapers and songs of wood-fellers
Through poets’ verses are known to all the world.
Wonder not to hear among us
The sound of a bamboo-flute.

Priest

You are right. Indeed it is as you have told me.
Songs of woodmen and flute-playing of herdsmen⁠ ⁠…

Reaper Flute-playing of reapers⁠ ⁠… Priest Songs of wood-fellers⁠ ⁠… Reapers Guide us on our passage through this sad world. Priest Song⁠ ⁠… Reaper And dance⁠ ⁠… Priest And the flute⁠ ⁠… Reaper And music of many instruments⁠ ⁠… Chorus

These are the pastimes that each chooses to his taste.
Of floating bamboo-wood
Many are the famous flutes that have been made;
Little-Branch and Cicada-Cage,
And as for the reaper’s flute,
Its name is Green-leaf;
On the shore of Sumiyoshi
The Korean flute they play.
And here on the shore of Suma
On Stick of the Salt-kilns
The fishers blow their tune.

Priest How strange it is! The other reapers have all gone home, but you alone stay loitering here. How is that? Reaper How is it, you ask? I am seeking for a prayer in the voice of the evening waves. Perhaps you will pray the Ten Prayers for me? Priest I can easily pray the Ten Prayers for you, if you will tell me who you are. Reaper To tell you the truth⁠—I am one of the family of Lord Atsumori. Priest One of Atsumori’s family? How glad I am! Then the priest joined his hands He kneels down and prayed:⁠—

Namu Amidabu.

Praise to Amida Buddha!

“If I attain to Buddhahood,
In the whole world and its ten spheres
Of all that dwell here none shall call on my name
And be rejected or cast aside.”

Chorus

“Oh, reject me not!
One cry suffices for salvation,
Yet day and night
Your prayers will rise for me.
Happy am I, for though you know not my name,
Yet for my soul’s deliverance
At dawn and dusk henceforward I know that you will pray.”

So he spoke. Then vanished and was seen no more.

Act II

Priest	Since this is so, I will perform all night the rites of prayer for the dead, and calling upon Amida’s name will pray again for the salvation of Atsumori.
	The ghost of Atsumori appears, dressed as a young warrior.
Atsumori	Would you know who I am That like the watchmen at Suma Pass Have wakened at the cry of seabirds roaming Upon Awaji shore? Listen, Rensei. I am Atsumori.
Priest	How strange! All this while I have never stopped beating my gong and performing the rites of the Law. I cannot for a moment have dozed, yet I thought that Atsumori was standing before me. Surely it was a dream.
Atsumori	Why need it be a dream? It is to clear the karma of my waking life that I am come here in visible form before you.
Priest	Is it not written that one prayer will wipe away ten thousand sins? Ceaselessly I have performed the ritual of the Holy Name that clears all sin away. After such prayers, what evil can be left? Though you should be sunk in sin as deep⁠ ⁠…
Atsumori	As the sea by a rocky shore, Yet should I be salved by prayer.
Priest	And that my prayers should save you⁠ ⁠…
Atsumori	This too must spring From kindness of a former life.48
Priest	Once enemies⁠ ⁠…
Atsumori	But now⁠ ⁠…
Priest	In truth may we be named⁠ ⁠…
Atsumori	Friends in Buddha’s Law.
Chorus	There is a saying, “Put away from you a wicked friend; summon to your side a virtuous enemy.” For you it was said, and you have proven it true. And now come tell with us the tale of your confession, while the night is still dark.
Chorus	He49 bids the flowers of Spring Mount the treetop that men may raise their eyes And walk on upward paths; He bids the moon in autumn waves be drowned In token that he visits laggard men And leads them out from valleys of despair.
Atsumori	Now the clan of Taira, building wall to wall, Spread over the earth like the leafy branches of a great tree:
Chorus	Yet their prosperity lasted but for a day; It was like the flower of the convolvulus. There was none to tell them50 That glory flashes like sparks from flint-stone, And after⁠—darkness. Oh wretched, the life of men!
Atsumori	When they were on high they afflicted the humble; When they were rich they were reckless in pride. And so for twenty years and more They ruled this land. But truly a generation passes like the space of a dream. The leaves of the autumn of Juyei51 Were tossed by the four winds; Scattered, scattered (like leaves too) floated their ships. And they, asleep on the heaving sea, not even in dreams Went back to home. Caged birds longing for the clouds⁠— Wild geese were they rather, whose ranks are broken As they fly to southward on their doubtful journey. So days and months went by; Spring came again And for a little while Here dwelt they on the shore of Suma At the first valley.52 From the mountain behind us the winds blew down Till the fields grew wintry again. Our ships lay by the shore, where night and day The seagulls cried and salt waves washed on our sleeves. We slept with fishers in their huts On pillows of sand. We knew none but the people of Suma. And when among the pine-trees The evening smoke was rising, Brushwood, as they call it,53 Brushwood we gathered And spread for carpet. Sorrowful we lived On the wild shore of Suma, Till the clan Taira and all its princes Were but villagers of Suma.
Atsumori	But on the night of the sixth day of the second month My father Tsunemori gathered us together. “Tomorrow,” he said, “we shall fight our last fight. Tonight is all that is left us.” We sang songs together, and danced.
Priest	Yes, I remember; we in our siege-camp Heard the sound of music Echoing from your tents that night; There was the music of a flute⁠ ⁠…
Atsumori	The bamboo-flute! I wore it when I died.
Priest	We heard the singing⁠ ⁠…
Atsumori	Songs