University of Virginia Library

TSUNEMASA

Priest

I am Sodzu Giokei, keeper of the temple of Ninnaji. Tajima no Kami Tsunemasa, of the house of Taira, was loved by the Emperor when he was a boy, but he was killed in the old days at the battle of the West Seas. And this is the Seizan lute that the Emperor gave him before that fighting. I offer this lute to his spirit in place of libation; I do the right service before him.

They perform a service to the spirit of Tsunemasa.
Priest

Although it is midnight I see the form of a man, a faint form, in the light there. If you are spirit, who are you?

Spirit

I am the ghost of Tsunemasa. Your service has brought me.

Priest

Is it the ghost of Tsunemasa? I perceive no form, but a voice.

Spirit

It is the faint sound alone that remains.

Priest

O! But I saw the form, really.

Spirit

It is there if you see it.

Priest

I can see.

Spirit

Are you sure that you see it, really?

Priest

O, do I, or do I not see you?

Chorus

Changeful Tsunemasa, full of the universal unstillness, looked back upon the world. His voice was heard there, a voice without form. None might see him, but he looked out from his phantom, a dream that gazed on our world.

Priest

It is strange! Tsunemasa! The figure was there and is gone, only the thin sound remains. The film of a dream, perhaps! It was a reward for this service.

Spirit

When I was young I went into the court. I had a look at life then. I had high favour. I was given the Emperor's biwa. [1] That is the very lute you have there. It is the lute called "Seizan." I had it when I walked through the world.

Chorus

It is the lute that he had in this world, but now he will play Buddha's music.

Priest

Bring out what stringed lutes you possess, and follow his music.

Spirit

And I will lead you unseen.

He plays.
Priest

Midnight is come; we will play the "midnight-play," Yabanraku.

Spirit

The clear sky is become overclouded; the rain walks with heavier feet.

Priest

They shake the grass and the trees.

Spirit

It was not the rain's feet. Look yonder.

Chorus

A moon hangs clear on the pine-bough. The wind rustles as if flurried with rain. It is an hour of magic. The bass strings are something like rain; the small strings talk like a whisper. The deep string is a wind voice of autumn; the third and the fourth strings are like the crying stork in her cage, when she thinks of her young birds toward nightfall. Let the cocks leave off their crowing. Let no one announce the dawn.

Spirit

A flute's voice has moved the clouds of Shushinrei. And the phœnix come out from the cloud; they descend with their playing. Pitiful, marvellous music! I have come down to the world. I have resumed my old playing. And I was happy here. All that is soon over.

Priest

Now I can see him again, the figure I saw here; can it be Tsunemasa?

Spirit

It's a sorry face that I make here. Put down the lights if you see me.

Chorus

The sorrow of the heart is a spreading around of quick fires. The flames are turned to thick rain. He slew by the sword and was slain. The red wave of blood rose in fire, and now he burns with that flame. He bade us put out the lights; he flew as a summer moth.