Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/302

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
298 Muromachi Period

When I hade him beat what could not ring,
Then tottered first my wits.
Courtier: She spoke, and on the face of the evening pool
A wave stirred.
Princess: And out of the wave
Courtier: A voice spoke.

(The voice of the Gardener is heard; as he gradually advances along the Bridge it is seen that he wears a “demon mask,” leans on a staff, and carries the “demon mallet” at his girdle.)

Gardener’s Ghost: I was driftwood in the pool, but the waves of bitterness

Chorus: Have washed me back to the shore.
Ghost: Anger clings to my heart,
Clings even now when neither wrath nor weeping
Are aught but folly.
Chorus: One thought consumes me,
The anger of lust denied
Covers me like darkness.
I am become a demon dwelling
In the hell of my dark thoughts.
Stormcloud of my desires.
Ghost: “Though the waters parch in the fields
Though the brooks run dry.
Never shall the place be shown
Of the spring that feeds my heart.”[1]
So I had resolved. Oh, why so cruelly
Set they me to win
Voice from a voiceless drum,
Spending my heart in vain?
And I spent my heart on the glimpse of a moon that slipped
Through the boughs of an autumn tree.[2]
Chorus: This damask drum that hangs on the laurel tree
Ghost: Will it sound, will it sound?

  1. ↑ Adapted from a poem in the “Gosenshū.”
  2. ↑ Adapted from a poem in the “Kokinshū.”
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.