The Noh Plays of Japan (18 page)

Arrows of grace whereby

The armies of the Four Fiends
^†
know no rest

CHORUS

And thus we two are armed,

For though the bow be not bent nor the arrow loosed, Yet falls the prey unmasked.

(
MAKINO
draws his bow as though about to shoot; his
BROTHER
checks him with his staff.)

So says the song. Now speak no more

Of things you know not of.

NOBUTOSHI

Tell me, pray, from which patriarch do the
hoka
priests derive their doctrine? To what sect do you adhere?

BROTHER

We are of no sect; our doctrine stands apart. It cannot be spoken nor expounded. To frame it in sentences is to degrade our faith; to set it down in writing is to be untrue to our Order; but by the bending of a leaf is the wind's journey known.

NOBUTOSHI

I thank you; your exposition delights me. Pray tell me now, what is the meaning of this word "Zen"?

MAKINO

Within, to sound to their depths the waters of Mystery; Without, to wander at will through the portals of Concentration.

NOBUTOSHI

And of the doctrine that Buddha is in the bones of each one of us...?

BROTHER

He lurks unseen; like the golden dragon
*
when he leaps behind the clouds.

NOBUTOSHI

If we believe that life and death are real...

BROTHER

Then are we caught in the wheel of sorrow.

NOBUTOSHI

But if we deny them...

BROTHER

We are listed to a heresy.
*

NOBUTOSHI

And the straight path to knowledge...

MAKINO
(rushing forward sword in hand)

"With the triple stroke is carved."
†

Hold!
(turning to
NOBUTOSHI
who has recoiled and drawn his sword.)

"To carve a way to knowledge by the triple stroke"...

These are Zen words; he was but quoting a text.

This perturbation does little honor to your wits.

CHORUS

Thus do men ever

Blurt out or blazen on the cheek

Red as rock-rose
^‡
the thing they would not speak.

Now by the Trinity, how foolish are men's hearts!

SERVANT
(aside)

While my masters are fooling, I'll to my folly too.

(He slips out by the side door.)

BROTHER
(embarking upon a religious discourse in order to allay
NOBUTOSHI'S
suspicions)

It matters not whether faith and words be great or small, Whether the law be kept or broken.

CHORUS

Neither in the "Yea" nor "Nay" is the Truth found;

There is none but may be saved at last.

BROTHER

Not man alone; the woods' and fields Show happy striving.

CHORUS

The willow in his green, the peony

In crimson dressed.

(The
BROTHER
here begins his first dance; like that which follows, it is a "shimai," or dance without instrumental music.)

On mornings of green spring

When at the valley's shining gate

First melt the hawthorn-warbler's frozen tears,

Or when by singing foam

Of snow-fed waters echoes the discourse

Of neighborly frogs;—then speaks

The voice of Buddha's heart.

Autumn, by eyes unseen,

Is heard in the wind's anger;

And the clash of river-reeds, the clamorous descent

Of wild-geese searching

The home-field's face,

Clouds shaped like leaves of rice—all these

To watchful eyes foretell the evening storm.

He who has seen upon a mountainside

Stock-still beneath the moon

The young deer stand in longing for his mate,

That man may read the writing, and forget

The finger on the page.

BROTHER

Even so the fisher's boats that ride

The harbor of the creek,

CHORUS

Bring back the fish, but leave the net behind.

These things you have heard and seen;

In the wind of the hill-top, in the valley's song,

In the film of night, in the mist of morning

Is it proclaimed that Thought alone

Was, Is and Shall be.

BROTHER

Conceive this truth and wake!

As a cloud that hides the moon, so Matter veils

CHORUS

The face of Thought.

BROTHER
(begins his second dance, while the
CHORUS
sings the ballad used by the "hoka" players)

Oh, a pleasant place is the City of Flowers;

CHORUS

No pen could write its wonders.
*

In the east, Gion and the Temple of Clear Waters

Where torrents tumble with a noise of many wings;

In the storm-wind flutter, flutter

The blossoms of the Earth-lord's tree.
^†

In the west, the Temple of the Wheel of Law,

The Shrine of Saga (Turn, if thou wilt,

Wheel of the Water Mill!),

Where river-waves dance on the weir

And river-willows by the waves are chafed;

Oxen of the City by the wheels are chafed;

And the tea-mortar by the pestle is chafed.

Why, and I'd forgot! In the
hoka's
hands

The
kokiriko
^‡
is chafed.

Now long may our Lord rule

Age notched on age, like the notches

Of these gnarled sticks!

MAKINO and BROTHER

Enough! Why longer hide our plot?

(They draw their swords and rush upon
NOBUTOSHI,
who places his hat upon the ground and slips out at the sidedoor.The hat henceforward symbolically represents
NOBUTOSHI
,
an actual representation of slaughter being thus avoided.)

CHORUS

Then the brothers drew their swords and rushed upon him,

The foe of their desire.

(
MAKINO
gets behind the hat, to signify that
NOBUTOSHI
is surrounded.)

They have scaled the summit of their hate,

The rancor of many months and years.

The way is open to the bourne of their intent.

(They strike.)

They have laid their enemy low.

So when the hour was come

Did these two brothers

By sudden resolution

Destroy their father's foe.

For valour and piety are their names remembered

Even in this aftertime.

N
OTE ON
H
AGOROMO.

The story of the mortal who stole an angel's cloak and so prevented her return to heaven is very widely spread. It exists, with variations and complications, in India, China, Japan, the Liu Chiu Islands, and Sweden. The story of Hasan in the
Arabian Nights
is an elaboration of the same theme.

The Noh play is said to have been written by Seami, but a version of it existed long before. The last half consists merely of chants sung to the dancing. Some of these (e. g. the words to the Suruga Dance) have no relevance to the play, which is chiefly a framework or excuse for the dances. It is thus a Noh of the primitive type, and perhaps belongs, at any rate in its conception, to an earlier period than such unified dramas as
Atsumori
or
Kagekiyo.
The words of the dances in
Maiguruma
are just as irrelevant to the play as those of the Suruga Dance in
Hagoromo,
but there the plot explains and even demands their intrusion.

The libretto of the second part lends itself very ill to translation, but I have thought it best to give the play in full.

PERSONS

FISHERMAN

Loud the rowers' cry

Who through the storm-swept paths of Mio Bay

Ride to the rising sea.

HAKURY
Ō

I am Hakury
ō
, a fisherman whose home is by the pine-woods of Mio.

BOTH

"On a thousand leagues of lovely hill clouds suddenly close;

But by one tower the bright moon shines in a clear sky."
*

A pleasant season, truly: on the pine-wood shore

The countenance of Spring;

Early mist close-clasped to the swell of the sea;

In the plains of the sky a dim, loitering moon.

Sweet sight, to gaze enticing

Eyes even of us earth-cumbered

Low souls, least for attaining

Of high beauty nurtured. Oh unforgettable! By mountain paths

Down to the sea of Kiyomi I come

And on far woodlands look,

Pine-woods of Mio, thither

Come, thither guide we our course.

Fishers, why put you back your boats to shore,

No fishing done?

Thought you them rising waves, those billowy clouds

Wind-blown across sea?

Wait, for the time is Spring and in the trees

The early wind his everlasting song

Sings low; and in the bay

Silent in morning calm the little ships,

Ships of a thousand fishers, ride the sea.

(The second
FISHERMAN
retires to a position near the leader of the
CHORUS
and takes no further part in the action.)

HAKURY
Ō

Now I have landed at the pine-wood of Mio and am viewing the beauty of the shore. Suddenly there is music in the sky, a rain of flowers, unearthly fragrance wafted on all sides. These are no common things; nor is this beautiful cloak that hangs upon the pine-tree. I come near to it. It is marvellous in form and fragrance. This surely is no common dress. I will take it back with me and show it to the people of my home. It shall be a treasure in my house.

(He walks four steps towards the Waki's pillar carrying the feather robe.)

ANGEL
(entering through the curtain at the end of the gallery)
Stop! That cloak is mine. Where are you going with it?

HAKURY
Ō

This is a cloak I found here. I am taking it home.

ANGEL

It is an angel's robe of feathers, a cloak no mortal man may wear. Put it back where you found it.

HAKURY
Ō

How? Is the owner of this cloak an angel of the sky? Why, then, I will put it in safekeeping. It shall be a treasure in the land, a marvel to men unborn.
*
I will not give back your cloak.

ANGEL

Oh pitiful! How shall I cloakless tread