 | Sotoba Komachi |  |
SOTOBA KOMACHI
By KWANAMI
- A Priest of the Kōyasan.
- Ono no Komachi.
- Second Priest.
- Chorus.
PERSONS
Turning to the audience.
I am a priest of the Kōyasan. I am minded to go up to the Capital to visit the shrines and sanctuaries there.
And he that shall be Buddha has not yet come into the world.
Second Priest
That round us lies
Is visionary, void.
Yet got we by rare fortune at our birth
Man's shape, that is hard to get;
And dearer gift was given us, harder to win,
The doctrine of Buddha, seed of our Salvation.
And me this only thought possessed,
How I might bring that seed to blossom, till at last
I drew this sombre cassock across my back.
And knowing now the lives before my birth,
No love I owe
To those that to this life engendered me,
Nor seek a care (have I not disavowed
Such hollow bonds?) from child by me begot.
A thousand leagues
Is little road
The fields his bed,
The hills his home
Till the travel's close.
Priest
We have come so fast that we have reached the pine-woods of Abeno, in the country of Tsu. Let us rest in this place.
They sit down by the Waki's pillar.
Komachi
Should the tide entice,
I would come, I think; but now
No wave asks; no stream stirs.
Long ago I was full of pride;
Crowned with nodding tresses, halcyon locks,
I walked like a young willow delicately wafted
By the winds of Spring.
I spoke with the voice of a nightingale that has sipped the dew.
I was lovelier than the petals of the wild-rose open-stretched
In the hour before its fall.
But now I am grown loathsome even to sluts,
Poor girls of the people, and they and all men
Turn scornful from me.
Unhappy months and days pile up their score;
I am old; old by a hundred years.
In the City I fear men's eyes,
And at dusk, lest they should cry "Is it she?"
Westward with the moon I creep
From the cloud-high City of the Hundred Towers.
No guard will question, none challenge
Pilgrim so wretched: yet must I be walking
Hid ever in shadow of the trees.
Past the Lovers' Tomb,
And the Hill of Autumn
To the River of Katsura, the boats, the moonlight.
Oh, I am weary. I will sit on this tree-stump and rest awhile.
Priest
Come! The sun is sinking; we must hasten on our way. Look, look at that beggar there! It is a holy Stūpa that she is sitting on! I must tell her to come off it.
Now then, what is that you are sitting on? Is it not a holy Stūpa, the worshipful Body of Buddha? Come off it and rest in some other place.
Komachi
Buddha's worshipful body, you say? But I could see no writing on it, nor any figure carved. I thought it was only a tree-stump.
Priest
When it has put its blossoms on
Cannot be hid;
And think you that this tree
Cut fivefold in the fashion of Buddha's holy form
Shall not make manifest its power?
Komachi
But there are flowers at my heart, [7]
Good enough, maybe, for an offering.
But why is this called Buddha's body?
Priest
Hear then! This Stūpa is the Body of the Diamond Lord. [8] It is the symbol of his incarnation.
Komachi
And in what elements did he choose to manifest his body?
Earth, water, wind, fire and space.
Komachi
Of these five man also is compounded. Where then is the difference?
Priest
The forms are the same, but not the virtue.
Komachi
And what is the virtue of the Stūpa?
Priest
"He that has looked once upon the Stūpa, shall escape forever from the Three Paths of Evil." [9]
Komachi
"One thought can sow salvation in the heart." [10] Is that of less price?
Second Priest
If your heart has seen salvation, how comes it that you linger in the World?
Komachi
It is my body that lingers, for my heart left it long ago.
Priest
You have no heart at all, or you would have known the Body of Buddha.
Komachi
It was because I knew it that I came to see it!
Second Priest
And knowing what you know, you sprawled upon it without a word of prayer?
Komachi
It was on the ground already. What harm could it get by my resting on it?
Komachi
Second Priest
Komachi
Priest
Komachi
Second Priest
Komachi
Priest
Komachi
Second Priest
Priest
Komachi
Chorus
speaking for Komachi.
Between Buddha and Man
Is no distinction, but a seeming of difference planned
For the welfare of the humble, the ill-instructed,
Whom he has vowed to save.
Sin itself may be the ladder of salvation."
So she spoke, eagerly; and the priests,
"A saint, a saint is this decrepit, outcast soul."
And bending their heads to the ground,
Three times did homage before her.
Komachi
Recite a riddle, a jesting song.
"Were I in Heaven
The Stūpa were an ill seat;
But here, in the world without,
What harm is done?" [17]
Chorus
But they have found their match.
Priest
Who are you? Pray tell us the name you had, and we will pray for you when you are dead.
Komachi
Shame covers me when I speak my name; but if you will pray for
Priests
Komachi that once
Was a bright flower,
Komachi the beautiful, whose dark brows
Linked like young moons;
Her face white-farded ever;
Whose many, many damask robes
Filled cedar-scented halls?
Komachi
And in the speech of the foreign Court.
Chorus
Like gentle moonlight dropped its glint on her sleeve.
Oh how fell she from splendour,
How came the white of winter
To crown her head?
Where are gone the lovely locks, double-twined,
The coils of jet?
Lank wisps, scant curls wither now
On wilted flesh;
And twin-arches, moth-brows tinge no more
With the hue of far hills. "Oh cover, cover
From the creeping light of dawn
Silted seaweed locks that of a hundred years
Lack now but one. Oh hide me from my shame."
Komachi hides her face.
Chorus
speaking for the Priest.
Komachi
That is what I carry in my bag.
Chorus
Komachi
Chorus
Komachi
Chorus
Komachi
Chorus
And how her limbs
Komachi
Chorus
speaking for Komachi while she mimes the actions they describe.
Now, wandering along the roads
I beg an alms of those that pass.
And when they will not give,
An evil rage, a very madness possesses me.
My voice changes.
Oh terrible!
thrusting her hat under the Priests' noses and shrieking at them menacingly.
Grr! You priests, give me something: give me something. . . Ah!
Priest
What do you want?
Komachi
Let me go to Komachi. [19]
Priest
But you told us you were Komachi. What folly is this you are talking?
Komachi
Many letters came to her, many messages, —
Thick as raindrops out of a black summer sky.
But she sent no answer, not even an empty word.
And now in punishment she has grown old:
She has lived a hundred years —
I love her, oh I love her!
Priest
You love Komachi? Say then, whose spirit has possessed you?
Komachi
But among them all
It was Shōshō who loved her best,
Shii no Shōshō of the Deep Grass. [20]
Chorus
speaking for Komachi, i. e. for the spirit of Shōshō.
Again I travel to the shaft-bench.
The sun. . . what hour does he show?
I must go my way.
Though the watchmen of the barriers
Stand across my path,
They shall not stop me!
Komachi
Chorus
speaking for Komachi, while she, dressed as her lover Shōshō, mimes the night-journey.
Tying over my head the long sleeves of my hunting cloak,
Hidden from the eyes of men,
In moonlight, in darkness,
On rainy nights I travelled; on windy nights,
Under a shower of leaves; when the snow was deep,
Komachi
Chorus
One night, two nights, three nights,
Ten nights (and this was harvest night). . .
I never saw her, yet I travelled;
Faithful as the cock who marks each day the dawn,
I carved my marks on the bench.
I was to come a hundred times;
There lacked but one. . .
Komachi
feeling the death agony of Shōshō
Chorus
Before the last night had come,
He died, — Shii no Shōshō the Captain.
Was it his anger that broke my wits?
If this be so, let me pray for the life hereafter,
Where alone is comfort;
Piling high the sands [21]
Till I be burnished as gold. [22]
See, I offer my flower [23] to Buddha,
I hold it in both hands.
Oh may He lead me into the Path of Truth,
Into the Path of Truth.
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