{"collection":"shi","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/shi/npj/npj19.htm","path":"shi/npj/npj19.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/shi/npj/npj19.htm","text":"By KWANAMI\nPERSONS\nA PRIEST OF THE K\u014cYASAN.\n SECOND PRIEST.\n ONO NO KOMACHI.\n CHORUS.\nPRIEST.\nWe who on shallow hills\u00a01 have built our home\n In the heart's deep recess seek solitude.\n(Turning to the audience.)\nI am a priest of the K\u014dyasan. I am minded to go up to the Capital to visit the shrines and sanctuaries there.\nThe Buddha of the Past is gone,\n And he that shall be Buddha has not yet come into the world.\nSECOND PRIEST.\nIn a dream-lull our lives are passed; all, all\n That round us lies\n Is visionary, void.\n Yet got we by rare fortune at our birth\n Man's shape, that is hard to get;\n And dearer gift was given us, harder to win,\n The doctrine of Buddha, seed of our Salvation.\n And me this only thought possessed,\n How I might bring that seed to blossom, till at last\n I drew this sombre cassock across my back.\n And knowing now the lives before my birth,\n No love I owe\n To those that to this life engendered me,\n Nor seek a care (have I not disavowed\n Such hollow bonds?) from child by me begot.\n A thousand leagues\n Is little road p. 115\n To the pilgrim's feet.\n The fields his bed,\n The hills his home\n Till the travel's close.\nWe have come so fast that we have reached the pine-woods of Abeno, in the country of Tsu. Let us rest in this place.\n(They sit down by the Waki's pillar.)\nKOMACHI.\nLike a root-cut reed,\u00a01\n Should the tide entice,\n I would come, I think; but now\n No wave asks; no stream stirs.\n Long ago I was full of pride;\n Crowned with nodding tresses, halcyon locks,\n I walked like a young willow delicately wafted\n By the winds of Spring.\n I spoke with the voice of a nightingale that has sipped the dew.\n I was lovelier than the petals of the wild-rose open-stretched\n In the hour before its fall.\n But now I am grown loathsome even to sluts,\n Poor girls of the people, and they and all men\n Turn scornful from me.\n Unhappy months and days pile up their score;\n I am old; old by a hundred years.\n In the City I fear men's eyes,\n And at dusk, lest they should cry \"Is it she?\"\n Westward with the moon I creep\n From the cloud-high City of the Hundred Towers.\n No guard will question, none challenge\n Pilgrim so wretched: yet must I he walking\n Hid ever in shadow of the trees.\n Past the Lovers' Tomb,\n And the Hill of Autumn\n To the River of Katsura, the boats, the moonlight.\n(She shrinks back and covers her face, frightened of being known.)\nWho are those rowing in the boats?\u00a01\n Oh, I am weary. I will sit on this tree-stump and rest awhile.\nCome! The sun is sinking; we must hasten on our way. Look, look at that beggar there! It is a holy St\u016bpa that she is sitting on! I must tell her to come off it.\nNow then, what is that you are sitting on? Is it not a holy St\u016bpa, the worshipful Body of Buddha? Come off it and rest in some other place.\nBuddha'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.\nEven the little black tree on the hillside\n When it has put its blossoms on\n Cannot be hid;\n And think you that this tree\n Cut fivefold in the fashion of Buddha's holy form\n Shall not make manifest its power?\nI too am a poor withered bough.\n But there are flowers at my heart,\u00a02\n Good enough, maybe, for an offering.\n But why is this called Buddha's body?\nHear then! This St\u016bpa is the Body of the Diamond Lord. 3 It is the symbol of his incarnation.\nAnd in what elements did he choose to manifest his body?\nEarth, water, wind, fire and space.\nOf these five man also is compounded. Where then is the difference?\nThe forms are the same, but not the virtue.\nAnd what is the virtue of the St\u016bpa?\n\"He that has looked once upon the St\u016bpa, shall escape forever from the Three Paths of Evil.\" 1\n\"One thought can sow salvation in the heart.\" 2 Is that of less price?\nIf your heart has seen salvation, how comes it that you linger in the World?\nIt is my body that lingers, for my heart left it long ago.\nYou have no heart at all, or you would have known the Body of Buddha.\nIt was because I knew it that I came to see it!\nAnd knowing what you know, you sprawled upon it without a word of prayer?\nIt was on the ground already. What harm could it get by my resting on it?\nIt was an act of discord. 1\nSometimes from discord salvation springs.\nFrom the malice of Daiba ... 2\nAs from the mercy of Kwannon. 3\nFrom the folly of Handoku ... 4\nAs from the wisdom of Monju. 5\nThat which is called Evil\nIs Good.\nThat which is called Illusion\nIs Salvation. 6\nFor Salvation\nCannot be planted like a tree.\nAnd the Heart's Mirror\nHangs in the void.\nCHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI).\n\"Nothing is real.\n Between Buddha and Man\n Is no distinction, but a seeming of difference planned\n For the welfare of the humble , the ill-instructed,\n Whom he has vowed to save.\n Sin itself may be the ladder of salvation.\"\n So she spoke, eagerly; and the priests,\n \"A saint, a saint is this decrepit, outcast soul.\"\n And bending their heads to the ground,\n Three times did homage before her.\nI now emboldened\n Recite a riddle, a jesting song.\n \"Were I in Heaven\n The St\u016bpa were an ill seat;\n But here, in the world without,\n What harm is done?\"\u00a01\nCHORUS.\nThe priests would have rebuked her;\n But they have found their match.\nWho are you? Pray tell us the name you had, and we will pray\n for you when you are dead.\nShame covers me when I speak my name; but if you will pray for p. 120 me, I will try to tell you. This is my name; write it down in your prayer-list: I am the ruins of Komachi, daughter of Ono no Yoshizane, Governor of the land of Dewa.\nPRIESTS.\nOh piteous, piteous! Is this\n Komachi that once\n Was a bright flower,\n Komachi the beautiful, whose dark brows\n Linked like young moons;\n Her face white-farded ever;\n Whose many, many damask robes\n Filled cedar-scented halls?\nI made verses in our speech\n And in the speech of the foreign Court.\nThe cup she held at the feast\n Like gentle moonlight dropped its glint on her sleeve.\n Oh how fell she from splendour,\n How came the white of winter\n To crown her head?\n Where are gone the lovely locks, double-twined,\n The coils of jet?\n Lank wisps, scant curls wither now\n On wilted flesh;\n And twin-arches, moth-brows tinge no more\n With the hue of far hills. \"Oh cover, cover\n From the creeping light of dawn\n Silted seaweed locks that of a hundred years\n Lack now but one.\n Oh hide me from my shame.\"\n(KOMACHI hides her face.)\nCHORUS (speaking for the PRIEST).\nWhat is it you carry in the wallet string at your neck?\nDeath may come to-day--or hunger to-morrow. p. 121\n A few beans and a cake of millet:\n That is what I carry in my bag.\nAnd in the wallet on your back?\nA garment stained with dust and sweat.\nAnd in the basket on your arm?\nSagittaries white and black.\nTattered cloak, 1\nBroken hat . . .\nShe cannot hide her face from our eyes;\n And how her limbs\nFrom rain and dew, hoar-frost and snow?\nCHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI while she mimes the actions they describe).\nNot rags enough to wipe the tears from my eyes!\n Now, wandering along the roads\n I beg an alms of those that pass.\n And when they will not give,\n An evil rage, a very madness possesses me.\n My voice changes.\n Oh terrible!\nKOMACHI (thrusting her hat under the PRIESTS' noses and shrieking at them menacingly).\nGrr! You priests, give me something: give me something ... Ah!\nWhat do you want?\nLet me go to Komachi. 1\nBut you told us you were Komachi. What folly is this you are talking?\nNo, no.... Komachi was very beautiful.\n Many letters came to her, many messages,--\n Thick as raindrops out of a black summer sky.\n But she sent no answer, not even an empty word.\n And now in punishment she has grown old:\n She has lived a hundred years--\n I love her, oh I love her!\nYou love Komachi? Say then, whose spirit has possessed you?\nThere were many who set their hearts on her,\n But among them all\n It was Sh\u014dsh\u014d who loved her best,\n Shii no Sh\u014dsh\u014d of the Deep Grass.\u00a02\nCHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI, i. e. for the spirit of S\u014dsh\u014d).\nThe wheel goes back; I live again through the cycle of my woes.\n Again I travel to the shaft-bench.\n The sun ... what hour does he show? p. 123\n Dusk. . . . Alone in the moonlight\n I must go my way.\n Though the watchmen of the barriers\n Stand across my path,\n They shall not stop me!\n(Attendants robe KOMACHI in the Court hat and travelling-cloak of Sh\u014dsh\u014d.)\nLook, I go!\nLifting the white skirts of my trailing dress,\nCHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI, while she, dressed as her lover Sh\u014dsh\u014d, mimes the night-journey).\nPulling down over my ears the tall, nodding hat,\n Tying over my head the long sleeves of my hunting cloak,\n Hidden from the eyes of men,\n In moonlight, in darkness,\n On rainy nights I travelled; on windy nights,\n Under a shower of leaves; when the snow was deep,\nAnd when water dripped at the roof-eaves,--tok, tok . . .\nSwiftly, swiftly coming and going, coming and going\n One night, two nights, three nights,\n Ten nights (and this was harvest night) . . .\n I never saw her, yet I travelled;\n Faithful as the cock who marks each day the dawn,\n I carved my marks on the bench.\n I was to come a hundred times;\n There lacked but one . . .\nKOMACHI (feeling the death-agony of Sh\u014dsh\u014d).\nMy eyes dazzle. Oh the pain, the pain!\nOh the pain! and desperate,\n Before the last night had come,\n He died,--Shii no Sh\u014dsh\u014d the Captain.\n(Speaking for KOMACHI, who is now no longer possessed by Sh\u014dsh\u014d's spirit.)\nWas it his spirit that possessed me,\n Was it his anger that broke my wits?\n If this be so, let me pray for the life hereafter,\n Where alone is comfort;\n Piling high the sands\u00a01\n Till I be burnished as gold.\u00a02\n See, I offer my flower\u00a03 to Buddha,\n 1 hold it in both hands.\n Oh may He lead me into the Path of Truth,\n Into the Path of Truth.\n114:1 The K\u014dyasan is not so remote as most mountain temples.\n116:1 Seami, writing c. 1430, says: \"Komachi was once a long play. After the words 'Who are those,' etc., there used to be a long lyric passage\" (Works, p. 240).\n116:2 \"Heart flowers,\" kokoro no hana, is a synonym for \"poetry.\"\n116:3 Vajrasattya, himself an emanation of Vairochana, the principal Buddha of the Shingon Sect.\n117:1 From the Nirv\u0101na S\u016btra.\n117:2 From the Avatamsaka S\u016btra.\n118:1 Lit. \"discordant karma.\"\n118:2 A wicked disciple who in the end attained to illumination. Also called Datta; cp. Kumasaka, p. 63.\n118:3 The Goddess of Mercy.\n118:4 A disciple so witless that he could not recite a single verse of Scripture.\n118:5 God of Wisdom.\n118:6 From the Nirv\u0101na S\u016btra.\n119:1 The riddle depends on a pun between sotoba and soto wa, \"without\" \"outside.\"\n121:1 The words which follow suggest the plight of her lover Sh\u014dsh\u014d when he travelled to her house \"a hundred nights all but one,\" to cut his notch on the bench.\n122:1 The spirit of her lover Sh\u014dsh\u014d has now entirely possessed her: this \"possession-scene\" lasts very much longer on the stage than the brief words would suggest.\n122:2 Fukagusa the name of his native place, means \"deep grass.\"\n124:1 See Hokkeky\u014d, II. 18.\n124:2 The colour of the saints in heaven.\n124:3 Her \"heart-flower.\" i.e. poetic talent.","title":"The Noh Plays of Japan: Chapter III.: Sotoba Komachi","type":"page"}