{"collection":"shi","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/shi/npj/npj36.htm","path":"shi/npj/npj36.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/shi/npj/npj36.htm","text":"(EARLY SNOW)\nBy KOPARU ZEMB\u014c MOTOYASU(1453-1532).\nPERSONS\nEVENING MIST, a servant girl.\n A LADY, the Abbot's daughter.\n TWO NOBLE LADIES.\n THE SOUL OF THE BIRD HATSUYUKI (\"Early Snow\").\n CHORUS.\nSCENE: The Great Temple at Izumo.\nSERVANT.\nI am a servant at the Nyoroku Shrine in the Great Temple of Izumo. My name is Evening Mist. You must know that the Lord Abbot has a daughter, a beautiful lady and gentle as can be. And she keeps a tame bird that was given her a year ago, and because it was a lovely white bird she called it Hatsuyuki, Early Snow; and she loves it dearly.\nI have not seen the bird to-day. I think I will go to the bird-cage and have a look at it.\n(She, goes to the cage.)\nMercy on us, the bird is not there! Whatever shall I say to my lady? But I shall have to tell her. I think I'll tell her now. Madam, madam, your dear Snow-bird is not here!\nLADY.\nWhat is that you say? Early Snow is not there? It cannot be true.\n(She goes to the cage.)\nIt is true. Early Snow has gone! How can that be? How can it be that my pretty one that was so tame should vanish and leave no trace?\nOh bitterness of snows\n That melt and disappear!\n Now do I understand\n The meaning of a midnight dream\n That lately broke my rest.\n A harbinger it was\n Of Hatsuyuki's fate.\n(She bursts into tears.)\nCHORUS.\nThough for such tears and sighs\n There be no cause,\n Yet came her grief so suddenly,\n Her heart's fire is ablaze;\n And all the while\n Never a moment are her long sleeves dry.\n They say that written letters first were traced\n By feet of birds in sand\n Yet Hatsuyuki leaves no testament.\n(They mourn.)\nCHORUS (\"kuse\" chant, irregular verse accompanied by dancing).\nHow sad to call to mind\n When first it left the breeding-cage\n So fair of form\n And coloured white as snow.\n We called it Hatsuyuki, \"Year's First Snow.\"\n And where our mistress walked\n It followed like a shadow at her side.\n But now alas! it is a bird of parting\u00a01\n Though not in Love's dark lane.\nThere's no help now. (She weeps bitterly.)\nStill there is one way left. Stop weeping, Lady,\n And turn your heart to him who vowed to hear.\n The Lord Amida, if a prayer be said--\n Who knows but he can bringp. 205\n Even a bird's soul into Paradise\n And set it on the Lotus Pedestal?\u00a01\nEvening Mist, are you not sad that Hatsuyuki has gone? . . . But we must not cry any more. Let us call together the noble ladies of this place and for seven days sit with them praying behind barred doors. Go now and do my bidding.\n(EVENING MIST fetches the NOBLE LADIES of the place).\nTWO NOBLE LADIES (together).\nA solemn Mass we sing\n A dirge for the Dead;\n At this hour of heart-cleansing\n We beat on Buddha's gong.\n(They pray.)\nNAMU AMIDA BUTSU\n NAMU NYORAI\nPraise to Amida Buddha,\n Praise to Mida our Saviour!\n(The prayers and gong-beating last for some time and form the central ballet of the play.)\nCHORUS (the birds soul appears as a white speck in the sky).\nLook! Look! A cloud in the clear mid-sky!\n But it is not a cloud.\n With pure white wings beating the air\n The Snow-bird comes!\n Flying towards our lady\n Lovingly he hovers,\n Dances before her.\nTHE BIRD'S SOUL.\nDrawn by the merit of your prayers and songs\nStraightway he was reborn in Paradise.\n By the pond of Eight Virtues he walks abroad:\n With the Ph\u0153nix and Fugan his playtime passing. p. 206\n He lodges in the sevenfold summit of the trees of Heaven.\n No hurt shall harm him\n For ever and ever.\nNow like the tasselled doves we loose\n From battlements on holy days\n A little while he flutters;\n Flutters a little while and then is gone\n We know not where.\n204:1 \"Wakare no tori,\" the bird which warns lovers of the approach of day.\n205:1 Turn it into a Buddha.","title":"The Noh Plays of Japan: Chapter VI: Hatsuyuki (Early Snow)","type":"page"}