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  The echo of the drum shall roll.

  GARDENER: The afterworld draws near me,

  Yet even now I wake not

  From this autumn of love that closes

  In sadness the sequence of my years.

  CHORUS: And slow as the autumn dew

  Tears gather in my eyes, to fall

  Scattered like dewdrops from a shaken flower

  On my coarse-woven dress.

  See here the marks, imprint of tangled love,

  That all the world will read.

  GARDENER: I said "I will forget,"

  CHORUS: And got worse torment so

  Than by remembrance. But all in this world

  Is as the horse of the aged man of the land of Sai;2

  And as a white colt flashes

  Past a gap in the hedge, even so our days pass.3

  And though the time be come,

  Yet can none know the road that he at last must tread,

  Goal of his dewdrop-life.

  All this I knew; yet knowing,

  Was blind with folly.

  CARDENER: "Wake, wake," he cries—

  CHORUS: The watchman of the hours—

  "Wake from the sleep of dawn!"

  And batters on the drum.

  For if its sound be heard, soon shall he see

  Her face, the damask of her dress . . .

  Aye, damask! He does not know

  That on a damask drum he beats,

  Beats with all the strength of his hands, his aged hands,

  But hears no sound.

  "Am I grown deaf?" he cries, and listens, listens:

  Rain on the windows, lapping of waves on the pool—

  Both these he hears, and silent only

  The drum, strange damask drum.

  Oh, will it never sound?

  I thought to beat the sorrow from my heart,

  Wake music in a damask drum; an echo of love

  From the voiceless fabric of pride!

  GARDENER: Longed for as the moon that hides

  In the obstinate clouds of a rainy night

  Is the sound of the watchman's drum,

  To roll the darkness from my heart.

  CHORUS: I beat the drum. The days pass and the hours.

  It was yesterday, and it is today.

  GARDENER: But she for whom I wait

  CHORUS: Comes not even in dream. At dawn and dusk

  GARDENER: No drum sounds.

  CHORUS: She has not come. Is it not sung that those

  Whom love has joined

  Not even the God of Thunder can divide?

  Of lovers, I alone

  Am guideless, comfortless.

  Then weary of himself and calling her to witness of his woe,

  "Why should I endure," he cried,

  "Such life as this?" and in the waters of the pond

  He cast himself and died.

  (Gardener leaves the stage.)

  Enter the Princess.

  COURTIER: I would speak with you, madam.

  The drum made no sound, and the aged Gardener in despair has flung himself into the pond by the laurel tree, and died. The soul of such a one may cling to you and do you injury. Go out and look upon him.

  PRINCESS (speaking wildly, already possessed by the Gardener's angry ghost, which speaks through her.)4

  Listen, people, listen!

  In the noise of the beating waves

  I hear the rolling of a drum.

  Oh, joyful sound, oh joyful!

  The music of a drum.

  COURTIER: Strange, strange!

  This lady speaks as one

  By phantasy possessed.

  What is amiss, what ails her?

  PRINCESS: Truly, by phantasy I am possessed.

  Can a damask drum give sound?

  When I bade him beat what could not ring,

  Then tottered first my wits.

  COURTIER: She spoke, and on the face of the evening pool

  A wave stirred.

  PRINCESS : And out of the wave

  COURTIER: A voice spoke.

  (The voice of the Gardener is heard; as he gradually advances along the Bridge it is seen that he wears a "demon mask," leans on a staff, and carries the "demon mallet" at his girdle.)

  GARDENER'S GHOST: I was driftwood in the pool, but the waves of bitterness

  CHORUS: Have washed me back to the shore.

  GHOST: Anger clings to my heart,

  Clings even now when neither wrath nor weeping

  Are aught but folly.

  CHORUS: One thought consumes me,

  The anger of lust denied

  Covers me like darkness.

  I am become a demon dwelling

  In the hell of my dark thoughts,

  Stormcloud of my desires.

  GHOST: "Though the waters parch in the fields

  Though the brooks run dry,

  Never shall the place be shown

  Of the spring that feeds my heart."5

  So I had resolved. Oh, why so cruelly

  Set they me to win

  Voice from a voiceless drum,

  Spending my heart in vain?

  And I spent my heart on the glimpse of a moon that slipped

  Through the boughs of an autumn tree.6

  CHORUS: This damask drum that hangs on the laurel tree

  GHOST: Will it sound, will it sound?

  (He seizes the Princess and drags her toward the drum.)

  Try! Strike it!

  CHORUS: "Strike!" he cries;

  "The quick beat, the battle-charge!

  Loud, loud! Strike, strike," he rails,

  And brandishing his demon stick

  Gives her no rest.

  "Oh woe!" the lady weeps,

  "No sound, no sound. Oh misery!" she wails.

  And he, at the mallet stroke, "Repent, repent!"

  Such torments in the world of night

  Abōrasetsu, chief of demons, wields,

  Who on the Wheel of Fire

  Sears sinful flesh and shatters bones to dust.

  Not less her torture now!

  "Oh, agony!" she cries, "What have I done,

  By what dire seed this harvest sown?"

  GHOST: Clear stands the cause before you.

  CHORUS: Clear stands the cause before my eyes;

  I know it now.

  By the pool's white waters, upon the laurel's bough

  The drum was hung.

  He did not know his hour, but struck and struck

  Till all the will had ebbed from his heart's core;

  Then leapt into the lake and died.

  And while his body rocked

  Like driftwood on the waves,

  His soul, an angry ghost,

  Possessed the lady's wits, haunted her heart with woe.

  The mallet lashed, as these waves lash the shore,

  Lash on the ice of the eastern shore.

  The wind passes; the rain falls

  On the Red Lotus, the Lesser and the Greater.7

  The hair stands up on my head.

  "The fish that leaps the falls

  To a fell snake is turned,"8

  I have learned to know them;

  Such, such are the demons of the World of Night.

  "O hateful lady, hateful!" he cried, and sank again

  Into the whirlpool of desire.

  TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR WALET

  Footnotes

  1 A twelfth-century folk song speaks of 'The Way of Love which knows no castes of 'high' and 'low'."

  2 A story from "Huai-nan T zŭ." What looks like disaster turns out to be good fortune and vice versa. The horse broke away and was lost. A revolution occurred during which the government seized all horses. When the revoludon was over the man of Sai's horse was rediscovered. If he had not lost it the government would have taken it.

  3 This simile, which passed into a proverb in China and Japan, occurs first in "Chuang Tzŭ," chap. xxii.

  4 Compare the "possession"
in "Sotoba Komachi."

  5 Adapted from a poem in the "Gosenshū."

  6 Adapted from a poem in the "Kokinshū."

  7 The names of two of the Cold Hells in the Buddhist Inferno.

  8 There is a legend that the fish who succeed in leaping a certain waterfall turn into dragons. So the Gardener's attempt to raise himself to the level of the Princess has changed him into an evil demon.

  THE BIRD-CATCHER IN HADES

  [Esashi Jūō]

  "The Bird-Catcher in Hades" in theme rather resembles "Birds of Sorrow," and is thus a good example of how the methods of kyōgen differ from those of Nō. Nothing is known of the authorship of this or the following kyōgen, and we cannot say much more about the date than that in their present form they are probably of the sixteenth century. It should be noted that "The Bird-Catcher in Hades" is a text of the now defunct Sagi school of kyōgen, and is no longer performed.

  Persons

  EMMA, the King of Hades

  KIYOYORI, a bird-catcher

  DEMONS

  CHORDS

  (The stage is completely bare. Two drummers and a flute-player, passing down the Bridge, take their usual seats at the rear of the stage. They are followed by Emma. He wears a devil's mask and a red wig. On his head there is a gold crown. His kimono is bright and large-patterned, and is resplendently decorated with gold thread. His hakama and outer kimono are of a similarly elaborate material, and he wears a brocade sash. His followers also wear devils' masks and red wigs, and their clothing is similar to his, though less elaborate. They carry bamboo poles. They come from the Bridge and immediately take their places on the stage in two rows facing one another, with Emma standing closest to the Waki's Pillar.)

  DEMONS (singing): Emma, the King of Hades,

  Emma, the King of Hades,

  Comes to the Meeting of the Six Ways.

  EMMA: Yai, yai! Are my satellites around?

  DEMONS: Ha! Here we are.

  EMMA: If any sinners come along, drive them into Hell.

  DEMONS: We certainly will.

  (Emma moves around the stage by the Chorus, finally taking his place at the end of the other row of Demons. The Demons all sit. Kiyoyori enters from the Bridge. He wears a plain kimono and a white cloak. He does not wear a mask, but he has a band tied around his forehead. He carries a long pole in his hand. He stops at the First Pine.)

  KIYOYORI : All men are sinners, and I am no more a sinner than the rest of them.

  My name is Kiyoyori, a bird-catcher, who was well known in the terrestrial plane. But my life span, like all things in the vale of tears, came to its end, and I was caught by the wind of impermanence. Now I am on the way to the world of darkness.

  (He moves along the Bridge onto the stage, singing.)

  Without a pang of parting,

  Without a tinge of remorse,

  I forsake the world of impermanence,

  And as I wander about with no guide,

  I have already come to the Meeting of the Six Ways.

  Indeed, this is already the Meeting of the Six Ways of Existence.

  After due consideration, I wish to go to Heaven.

  ONE OF THE DEMONS: Ha! Ho! I smell a man. Why, no wonder! Here comes a sinner. I will report to Emma.

  (He stands and faces Emma.)

  Oh, please, Sir! Here comes the first sinner.

  EMMA : Make haste and drive him into Hell.

  DEMON: Very well, Sir.

  Come, you sinner! Hell is ever at hand, but one cannot say that about Heaven. Make haste.

  (He and the other Demons attempt to beat Kiyoyori, who defends himself skilfully with his pole. He then sits in the center of the stage.)

  Yai, yai! You are different from most of the sinners of the earth. What was your profession on the terrestrial plane?

  KIYOYORI : I was Kiyoyori, the famous bird-catcher.

  DEMON: Bird-catcher? Taking life from morning till night! Your sins are unfathomably great. I must send you to Hell at once.

  KIYOYORI: Oh, no! I am not such a bad sinner as you make me out to be. Please let me go to Heaven.

  DEMON: No, that cannot be! But first

  I shall ask the King about your case.

  Pardon, Sir!

  EMMA: Well, what is it?

  DEMON: The sinner who has just arrived says that he was a very famous bird-catcher on the terrestrial plane. So I told him that, having taken life day and night, he committed deep sin and certainly is doomed to Hell. But he protests and says that we misjudge him thoroughly. What shall we do about him?

  EMMA : Call the sinner to me.

  DEMON: Very well, Sir.

  Come along this way. King Emma wishes to see you.

  KIYOYORI: I am coming.

  DEMON: Here is that sinner you sent for.

  EMMA: Come, you sinner! You have been sinning all through your life snaring birds, and you are indeed a very wicked man. I am going to send you to Hell at once.

  KIYOYORI : What you say about me is very true, but the birds I caught were used to feed the falcons. There was really no serious harm in that.

  EMMA: A falcon is another kind of bird, isn't it?

  KIYOYORI: Yes, indeed.

  EMMA: Well, then! That puts the case on a slightly different basis. I do not consider that a serious offense.

  KIYOYORI : I am glad you don't. It really was more the falcon's fault than mine. That being the case, I hope you will send me straight to Heaven.

  EMMA: Since I, the mighty King of Hades, have not yet tasted a bird, catch one with your pole, and let me taste it. Then I will grant your wish without further ado.

  KIYOYORI: Nothing could be simpler. I shall catch a few birds and present them to you.

  CHORUS: TO the bird-hunt, bird-hunt!

  All at once from the southern paths of the mountain of death,

  Many birds come flocking.

  Swifter than a flash

  The bird-catcher darts and

  Snares many with his pole.

  (While the Chorus is singing, Kiyoyori darts about the stage waving his pole. He maizes his way to the back of the stage, where he spreads open his fan and pretends to put the birds on it.)

  KIYOYORI: I will roast them for you. Here, they are ready. Please try one.

  (He goes to Emma and offers him the fan.)

  EMMA: Well, well! I will have a taste.

  Munch-munch! Crunch-crunch!

  Oh, this is uncommonly delicious.

  KIYOYORI (to the Demons): You would like to try them, too?

  (He goes to each Demon in turn.)

  DEMONS: Indeed, we shall!

  Munch-munch! Crunch-crunch!

  What marvelous flavor!

  EMMA: I have never tasted anything so wonderful. Since you have given us such a treat, I am going to send you back to the terrestrial plane. There you may catch birds for another three years.

  KIYOYORI : I am greatly obliged to you, I am sure.

  (During the following song of the Chorus, Kiyoyori dances joyfully with open fan.)

  CHORUS: For another three years, you shall snare birds!

  Pheasant, goose, peacock, stork, and many others.

  Thus commanded, Kiyoyori has turned his steps once more to the world beneath. But Emma, loath to see him depart, bestows on Kiyoyori his jeweled crown. Our bird-catcher marches lightly to the world below, there to begin his second span of life.

  (Kiyoyori dances with crown, then leaves by Bridge, followed by Emma and the Demons.)

  TRANSLATED BY SHIO SAKANISKI

  BUSU

  Persons

  MASTER

  TARŌ KAJA

  JIRŌ KAJA

  (The Master, Tarō kaja, and Jirō kaja enter the stage along the Bridge, Tarō kaja and Jirō kaja seat themselves by the Name-Saying Seat. The Master as he introduces himself goes to the Want's Pillar.)

  MASTER: I am a gentleman of this vicinity. I plan to go away to the mountains for a few days, and now I shall summon my servants to give them instructions a
bout what to do during my absence. Tarō kaja, where are you?

  TARŌ: Here, Master.

  (He gets up and goes toward the Master, then bows.)

  MASTER: Call Jirō kaja too.

  TARŌ: Yes, Master. Jiro kaja, the master wants you.

  JIRŌ: I obey.

  (He also comes forward and bows.)

  TOGETHER: We are before you, Master.

  MASTER: I have called you because I am going to the mountains for a few days, and I want you both to take good care of the house while I am away.

  TARŌ: Your orders will be obeyed, Master, but you have always taken one of us with you on your journeys, and today too

  TOGETHER: One of us would like to accompany you.

  MASTER: NO, that is out of the question. Today I have something important to leave in your care, and both of you must guard it. Wait here.

  TOGETHER: Very good, Master.

  (The Master goes to the Flute Pillar where he picks up a round lacquered cask about two feet high. He deposits it in the center of the stage, and returns to his former position.)

  MASTER: This is what is known as busu, a deadly poison. If even wind blowing from its direction should strike you, it will mean instant death. Be on your guard.

  TARO: Yes, Master.

  JIRŌ: Excuse me, Master, but I would like to ask you something.

  MASTER: What is it?

  JIRŌ: Why do you keep such a dreadful poison in the house?

  MASTER: The busu loves its master, and as long as it is the master who handles it, there is not the slightest danger. But if either of you so much as approach it, you will suffer instant death. Beware even of being touched by the wind from its direction.

  JIRŌ: Yes, Master.

  MASTER: Now I shall be leaving.

  TARŌ: May you have a pleasant journey,

  TOGETHER: And come back soon.

  MASTER: Thank you.

  (The Master goes to the Bridge, where he seats himself at the First Pine, indicating that he has disappeared. Tarō and Jiro see him off, then seat themselves at the back of the stage.)

  TARŌ: He always takes one of us with him. I wonder why today he left both of us to look after the house.