FOREWORD TO TSUNEMASA
The Noh, especially the Noh of spirits, abounds
in dramatic situations, perhaps too subtle and
fragile for our western stage, but none the less
intensely dramatic. Kumasaka is martial despite
the touch of Buddhism in the opening
scene, where the spirit is atoning for his past
violence.
Tsunemasa is gentle and melancholy. It is
all at high tension, but it is a psychological
tension, the tension of the séance. The excitement
and triumph are the nervous excitement
and triumph of a successful ritual. The spirit
is invoked and appears.
The parallels with Western spiritist doctrines
are more than interesting. Note the spirit's
uncertainty as to his own success in appearing.
The priest wonders if he really saw anything.
The spirit affirms that "The body was there
if you saw it."
As to the quality of poetry in this work:
there is the favoured youth, soon slain; the
uneasy blood-stained and thoughtless spirit;
there are the lines about the caged stork crying
at sunset, and they are as clear as Dante's.
"Era già l' ora che volge il disio."
