Plays

epub:type="z3998:dramatis-personae">

Characters

• A Madwoman.

• Her son, Sakurago, the “Cherry Child.”

• A priest.

• A child merchant.28

• Villagers.

I

Tsukushi, in Autumn

Merchant	I am a child-merchant from the East. I have lived for a long time in Kioto, but now I have come down to Hiuga, in Tsukushi, Yesterday, towards evening I bought a young boy, and he begged me to take the money that I paid for him, together with this letter, to ask for the mother of Young Sakura, and to deliver both safely to her. Now I am hastening on my way to find her dwelling. This looks like the place. I will ask admission. Pray, is the mother of young Sakura here?
Mother	Who art thou?
Merchant	Here is a letter from Young Sakura. Also he bade me safely to deliver this money, so I have brought it hither, and hereby do deliver it.
Mother	O this is strange! First let me see the letter. She reads. “Now these many months I have been sore grieved to look upon thy wretched state, and so I have sold myself to a Child Merchant, and am going Eastward⁠ ⁠… ⁠ ⁠… Stay, what is this? My child was not for such as they⁠ ⁠… The Merchant has disappeared. Ah! Woe is me, he is gone, and lost from sight. What can this mean Reading. “and now I pray thee to make of this an occasion to retire from the world, and change thy garb.29 A thousand times do I regret that I must part from thee.”
Chorus	Why, if the parting is bitter, dost leave thy mother, not stay by her side? The mother in her humble cot grieving alone day in, day out, and naught to comfort her but the sight of her son.
Mother	O Thou in whom I put my faith, Lady-of-the-Trees-that-Blossom,30 to Thee he’s dedicate. Canst thou not stay him, my Sakura, my Flower?
Chorus	For otherwise how can I live the weary days alone, in this old home where grief has come to me? I will seek out whither my child has gone, she cries and weeping, weeping wanders forth.

II

The Sakuragawa, in Spring. Three years later.

A Priest	Long have we waited, and the Cherry Time has come at last. So hasten we along the hill-path gay with Spring. I am a priest of the temple of Isobe in Hitachi. This youth has begged me to take him under my care, so we have made a vow of teacher and disciple. In this district is the Sakuragawa, famous for its blossoms; and as the flowers are now at the best, I am taking him with me, and we are hastening thither. On Tsukuba all round the bloom is at the full. A grove of trees, and thick the shade and in the sky their colour glows. The firtrees wear a look of Spring and the tempest lies on the billows of a flowery sea. ’Tis the River of Blossoms, the Sakuragawa.
Villager	Thou comest late. I’ve waited long for thee.
Priest	We all came in company. That is why we are late. But see, how beautiful! The flowers are in full bloom.
Villager	Indeed they are. And there is another sight to see. A mad woman, with a beautiful hand-net, with which she scoops up the blossoms floating on the stream. And her ravings are most strange and diverting. Wait here a little, and we will show her to this youth.
	He tells another villager to fetch her. She approaches, and, meeting a traveller, addresses him.
Woman	Tell me, O Wayfarer, are the blossoms falling on the Sakuragawa?
	He replies “Yes.”
Woman	The blossoms are about to fall, say ye? O! Woe is me, that would entice the flowers as they floating come adown the stream, whose waters hurry past as quickly as the fleeting days of Spring. Whirled willy-nilly31 on the stream The fallen petals hurry down⁠— A sign that from the mountainside Up yonder also Spring has flown. So runs the song, and I must not delay. It were unkind to them to come⁠—too late⁠— upon the blossoms that have turned to snow. In anger at the wind32 that shed the blooms, the waves have risen in a sealess sky. Deep as my love lies the snow of the flowers that fall and melting make a stream of tears. I am a mad woman that stands here, my home is Hiuga, up in Tsukushi. I lost my loved son, my heart was torn with grief, and I have crossed o’er mountains and o’er seas to Hakozaki, where the waves arise, and thence by Suma’s shore, and on past Suruga, to Hitachi I now have come. But this way doth not lie the Path33 of Mother and Son, so how shall I go on my distant journey hence? This is the famous river, the Sakuragawa. In truth a lovely place that well deserves its name. The child from whom I am parted is also named Sakura, and this remembrance and the season both make dear to me this river with the name I love and where I plunge my net and gather in the snow-white blossoms floating by, a keepsake of the Spring.
Chorus	Parted the parent and child, the bird has flown from the nest, whither I know not. And I have travelled far, worn out am I with this my journey through the wilds, distant as earth from sky. But what if we should meet, mother and son, and neither know the other’s face? Nay, nay, it cannot be! Through the dark winter he was lost from view, but now the Spring has come shall he not blossom out again, my Flower?
Priest	This must be the madwoman here. Pray tell me, Mad Woman, from what province and from what town dost thou come?
Woman	I am from distant Tsukushi.
Priest	And what is it that thus hath made thee mad?
Woman	Because I have been parted from my only child my mind is all deranged.
Priest	O sad to hear! I see that thou dost carry a lovely net, to scoop up the blossoms floating by. Moreover thou dost wear an earnest look of faith. What is the meaning of this?
Woman	It is because the Goddess that guards my native place is called the Lady-of-the-Trees-that-Blossom, and on