Japanese Literature Part 44

[Footnote 158: This stanza is remarkable for being (so far as the present writer is aware) the only instance in j.a.panese literature of that direct impersonation of an abstract idea which is so very strongly marked a characteristic of Western thoughts and modes of expression.]

[Footnote 159: Composed on the occasion of a feast at the palace.]

[Footnote 160: One of a number of stanzas composed by a party of courtiers who visited the cascade of Nun.o.biki, near the site of the modern treaty-port of Kobe.]

[Footnote 161: This stanza was composed and sent to the owner of the neighboring house on the last day of winter, when the wind had blown some snow across from it into the poet's dwelling.]

THE DRAMA OF j.a.pAN

[_Selected Plays, translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain_]

NAKAMITSU

DRAMATIS PERSONae

MITSUNAKA, Lord of the Horse to the Emperor Murakami.

BIJIYAU, Son of Mitsunaka, and still a boy.

NAKAMITSU, retainer of Mitsunaka.

KAUZHIYU, son of Nakamitsu, and foster-brother of Bijiyau.

WESHIn, Abbot of the great monastery on Mount Hiyei, near Kiyauto (Miaco).

The Chorus.

Scene.--The Temple of Chiynuzanzhi, and my Lord Mitsunaka's palace in Kiyauto.

Time.--Early in the Tenth Century.

NAKAMITSU

PART I

Scene I.--Near the Monastery of Chiynuzanzhi

_Enter Nakamitsu._

NAKAMITSU.--I am Nakamitsu, a man of the Fujihara clan, and retainer of Mitsunaka, Lord of Tada in the land of Setsushiu. Now you must know that my lord hath an only son, and him hath he sent to a certain monastery amid the mountains named Chiynuzanzhi, while I, too, have a son called Kauzhiyu, who is gone as page to young my lord. But young my lord doth not condescend to apply his mind unto study, loving rather nothing so well as to spend from morn to night in quarrelling and disturbance. Wherefore, thinking doubtless to disinherit young my lord, my lord already this many a time, hath sent his messengers to the temple with summons to return home to Kiyauto. Nevertheless, as he cometh not, me hath he now sent on the same errand.

[_The above words are supposed to be spoken during the journey, and Nakamitsu now arrives at the monastery[162]._]

Prithee! is any within?

KAUZHIYU.--Who is it that deigneth to ask admittance?

NAKAMITSU.--What! Is that Kauzhiyu? Tell young my lord that I have come to fetch him home.

KAUZHIYU.--Your commands shall be obeyed. [_He goes to his master's apartment._] How shall I dare address my lord? Nakamitsu is come to fetch my lord.

BIJIYAU.--Call him hither.

KAUZHIYU.--Your commands shall be obeyed. [_He returns to the outer hall and addresses his father._] Condescend to come this way.

[_They go to Bijiyau's apartment._

NAKAMITSU.--It is long since I was last here.

BIJIYAU.--And what is it that hath now brought thee?

NAKAMITSU.--'Tis that my lord, your father, hath sent me to bid your lordship follow me home without delay.

BIJIYAU.--Shall I, then, go without saying anything to the priests, my preceptors?

NAKAMITSU.--Yes; if the priests be told, they will surely wish to see your lordship on the way, whereas, my lord, your father's commands were, that I alone was to escort you.

BIJIYAU.--Then we will away.

NAKAMITSU.--Kauzhiyu! thou, too, shalt accompany thy master.

KAUZHIYU.--Your commands shall be obeyed.

[_They depart from the temple, and arrive at Mitsunaka's palace._

NAKAMITSU.--How shall I dare address my lord? I have brought hither his lordship Bijiyau.

MITSUNAKA.--Well, Bijiyau! my only reason for sending thee up to the monastery was to help thy learning; and I would fain begin, by hearing thee read aloud from the Scriptures.

And with these words, and bidding him read on, He lays on ebon desk before his son The sacred text, in golden letters writ.

BIJIYAU.--But how may he who never bent his wit To make the pencil trace Asaka's[163] line Spell out one letter of the book divine?

In vain, in vain his sire's behest he hears:-- Nought may he do but choke with idle tears.

MITSUNAKA.--Ah! surely 'tis that, being my child, he respecteth the Scriptures too deeply, and chooseth not to read them except for purposes of devotion. What of verse-making, then?

BIJIYAU.--I cannot make any.