The Golden Country (9 page)

GENNOSUKE: Yes.

FERREIRA: And what is the pit?

GENNOSUKE: It's a torture devised by an official of the bureau named Hirata. A man is bound, a small hole is drilled in his temple for the blood to trickle out, and he is hung upside down in a deep pit.

YUKI: Ohhh.

HATSU
(supporting her):
Don't lose heart, Yuki. ...It's
my fault for placing so much trust in Tome.

FERREIRA: Is he being pressed to give up his faith?

GENNOSUKE: He's a samurai. He hasn't said a word to indicate that he'll give in.

FERREIRA: We knew that. He's a samurai of samurai. He pretended for a long time to have renounced his faith in order to shelter us.

GENNOSUKE: Inoue also knows that he'll never give in. The reason he continues to torture him ...

FERREIRA: The reason he continues to torture him?

GENNOSUKE: He wants to find out where you are, Father.

YUKI: Ohhh.

GENNOSUKE: Inoue has told him that if he reveals your hiding place, he won't have to renounce his Christianity. He says that he'll even overlook Lord Tomonaga's practice of his faith as well as that of the farmers of the village. He's very cruel.

FERREIRA: In other words, if I fall into the bureau's hands, he promises to spare Lord Tomonaga's life.

GENNOSUKE: Yes. But Lord Tomonaga will never tell them.

Ferreira steps backward, the eyes of everyone on him.

FERREIRA
(confused):
Do they say that they'll let him go if they catch me? That's just their strategy. It's a trap. Why did you come here? You had no reason. Why did you come to tell us this?

GENNOSUKE: I came ... I had several reasons. I came because Lord Tomonaga always had kind words for me. My mother brought me here once. From childhood I have wanted to be a samurai like him. And now he ...

FERREIRA: That's just a pretext. You came here on Inoue's orders to draw me into a trap.

GENNOSUKE: Do you have so great a suspicion of me? Then I'll tell you. I didn't come just to tell you what happened. I came because I wanted to save the life of Lord Tomonaga, because I wanted to help Yuki.

FERREIRA: The bureau tried to arrange for your marriage to Yuki, to find out whether Lord Tomonaga would accept or refuse.

GENNOSUKE: That's your imagining. There was a proposal to give her to Lord Omura, but Lord Tomonaga, of course, refused point blank.

FERREIRA
(drawing back):
Lord Tomonaga is suffering this moment for me. If I give myself up, he'll be released. Is that your story? But even after I'm caught, it's a very simple matter for the men of the bureau to take his life too.

GENNOSUKE: I must go back. Unless I do, it'll seem strange.

KASUKE: When do they plan to bring the
fumi-e
to this village?

GENNOSUKE: Oh yes, that's something else I had to tell you. The day after tomorrow.

Kasuke gives a loud moan. Gennosuke bows to Yuki, then leaves. Yuki follows, calling after him,
"Gennosuke!"
Hatsu walks off with her.

FERREIRA: It's a trap. What the young samurai said ... that's just their strategy. They're not so soft as to spare Tomonaga's life just because they catch me. I know. I know how crafty these Japanese officials are. It's nothing but a trap.

KASUKE: Father, won't you please help the people of the village?

He crawls to him on his knees.

KASUKE: It's not just his life. Whether
we
live or die depends on you alone. Please, I beg you like this with folded hands. I'm afraid, I'm afraid.

The door opens and Hisaichi, Mokichi, and other villagers carry in Yuki, who has fainted.

HATSU: Father, Yuki has fainted____It's all my fault. I did a terrible thing.

KASUKE: The bureau has Lord Tomonaga in the pit. The
fumi-e
will come to this village the day after tomorrow. Inoue promises that if Father gives himself up, Lord Tomonaga and all of us will be saved.

FERREIRA
(draws back, as all look intently at him):
Why do you look at me that way? Why do you look at me with those eyes?

He covers his eyes with one hand.

FERREIRA: Don't you understand that this is a trap the bureau has set for us? What reason do they have for letting you go? Listen. Do you really believe that they will free Lord Tomonaga if I go to take his place? Do you really believe that knowing you are Christians they'll pretend not to know? I can't follow that kind of reasoning. Listen. I'm the only priest left in Japan. As priest, I am for you the Church itself. When I'm gone, there'll be no one to give you absolution for your sins, to pour the saving waters of God upon your children. This is what I want you to consider.

All are silent.

FERREIRA: Don't look at me that way. Don't look at me with those eyes. What have I done to you? Lord, why do you make a victim out of me? I am not Christ. Why are you silent? O Lord!

All are frightened by Ferreira's expression
and draw back.

FERREIRA: Leave me alone. Get out. Through that door.

All hurry to leave as if in flight.

FERREIRA
(falling to his knees):
O Lord. Lord, you can see to the very bottom of my soul. You know my weakness of spirit. Until now I have acted as a priest and handed on your teachings to these people. As if I were really somebody. Standing on some kind of pedestal. Just as if I were prepared to overcome any obstacle that might come along. But now, I see myself as I am, this miserable self. My ugly face. Is this the true self? Then how does my faith differ from that of the coward? This is something that never struck me until today. What does it come to? I traveled across wide oceans to Japan, just to labor for you, just to serve you as your servant. O Lord, then you present me with this comedy.

He laughs.

FERREIRA: The Garden of Gethsemane. If even Christ sweat blood, how can I endure alone? I can't. I can't. Mary, my Mother, intercede for me. Intercede for me that the strength will be granted.

The spotlight moves from Ferreira to another portion of the stage, where Yuki and Hatsu are praying in the same posture as Ferreira. Next to them stands Norosaku.

YUKI: Mary, Mother Mary, intercede for us. Obtain for me the strength I need. What shall I do?

HATSU: Can you forgive me? It was because of my foolishness that your father was caught.

YUKI: Pray along with me. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women.... It's no use. The prayers to Mary which usually fall like petals from my lips are now like tasteless grains of sand. Even as I kneel here, my father is hanging upside down in the pit.... Ohhh, I see him suffering before my eyes.

HATSU: It's the same with me. O Santa Maria, why do you let this happen? I was just trying to help Yuki. Santa Maria, why do you play with me like this? Whatever I may have done, you must help the people of the village.

You must help Yuki's father, Santa Maria. Even if I did do it, it's not my fault. It's all your fault-for playing with us like this. Yuki, why don't you ask Gennosuke's help?

YUKI: He's a very kind person, but he promised the farmers not to say anything about Father Ferreira's hiding place. No matter how hard Gennosuke tries, father can't be saved unless Father Ferreira goes to the bureau.

HATSU: Yuki, ask Father Ferreira.

YUKI: Then my father's sufferings would come to an end. If that were possible, my anguish would be over.

NOROSAKU: And then that man was sent to Paradise.

The spotlight turns again to Ferreira.

FERREIRA: What do you wish of me, Lord? What do you order me to do, miserable as I am? If you tell me to sacrifice my life to save Tomonaga and the villagers, I will gladly go and give myself up. But then there'll be no shepherd left in this country to hand on your teaching. There'll be no priest to take your place and to confer on the people your living waters. I am the only remaining priest in this country. Do you wish this last light to be quenched? Please answer. O Lord, in this difficult time I can't decide what to do without your help. I'm now blind. So blind that I can't even see into myself. Lord, why are you silent? You are always silent.

A voice is heard laughing.

FERREIRA: What is that laugh?

He plugs his ears.

FERREIRA: What is that laugh.

The spotlight turns now to Kasuke and
Hatsu.

KASUKE: What's Father doing?

HATSU: He's been closed up in his room for a long time. He doesn't come out.

KASUKE: So, after all...

HATSU: Kasuke, the day after tomorrow they bring the
fumi-e.

KASUKE: Don't even speak about it.

HATSU: But if Father goes to the bureau, they'll pretend not to know about us. The man from the bureau said so.

KASUKE: We can hardly rely on their word. It's as Father said. The officials at the bureau are not the kind of men that keep their promises.

HATSU: But there's no other way of being saved than by trusting in their promises. Have you thought about that?

KASUKE: Ah, if only God would come to our help in such a time!

HATSU: Is there any possibility of that? If there were, then he would have been watching over the lives of the Christians long before. When Kiheie of Omura was taken, we prayed very hard, but Kiheie was burned to death all the same. When the mother of Jiro of Isahaya was taken, then too God simply folded his arms and looked the other way.

KASUKE: What are you trying to say?

HATSU: I'm just putting into words what all of you are thinking but are afraid to say. You, Kasuke, the day after tomorrow when the
fumi-e
comes... you'll lift your hands in prayer. But God won't hear you. He won't come to your help. You'll meet the same fate as Jiro's mother.

KASUKE: Why do you torture me like this?

HATSU: Listen, Kasuke. There's only one way to save the life of Lord Tomonaga and protect the people of the village.

KASUKE: What way?

HATSU: Won't you go with me to the bureau? We can offer to exchange information concerning Father's whereabouts for the life of Lord Tomonaga.

KASUKE: Those are terrible words.

HATSU: Then you place but little value on your life. Do you want to hang upside down in the pit like Lord Tomonaga?

The spotlight shifts back to Ferreira. He still hears a voice laughing.

FERREIRA: Who's laughing? Am I deceiving myself? Is that your meaning? That laugh! Is it laughing at me? Yes, it's true. I've been telling lies to myself. And not only to myself. I've been lying also to you, Lord. The truth is that I'm frightened. I'm afraid of being killed. That's why I won't go to the bureau. That's why I won't go even to help Tomonaga and the farmers. I've taught many people how glorious it is to die a martyr's death and yet when I'm pushed to it, I tremble with fear like this. How foul, how foul. 0 Lord, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me, but not my will but thine be done. "And now Christ was in agony and prayed still more earnestly; his sweat fell to the ground like thick drops of blood."

CURTAIN

The same scene as Act one, Scene one, Inoue's Bureau of Investigation. A painting of Christ hangs on the wall.

HIRATA: I wonder if Christ really looked like that.

INOUE: No. According to the Fathers, there's nothing written anywhere about how Christ looked.

He takes up another painting of Christ.

INOUE: This was painted by the Italian Giovanni Niccolo, who came to Nagasaki in 1585.

HIRATA: I've only heard the name. He must be the one who introduced the Japanese artists to European painting.

He inspects it.

HIRATA: But this Christ has the same face as the other. And these were all painted from imagination!

INOUE: Not just imagination. If there is any face that artists beyond the seas have conceived out of their dreams and longings, it is this face. They painted it as
the most beautiful of all human faces and the most precious.

Gennosuke enters with tea. Inoue stares at him.

HIRATA: But it's still all imagination. I can only believe what I see.

INOUE: Gennosuke, your hand is shaking.

GENNOSUKE: It's nothing.

The clock strikes. Far off a wailing voice is heard.

INOUE: What's the matter, Gennosuke? Are you frightened by Tomonaga's wails?