#sembo motoyaso

[themonologuearchive]

Atsumori - 02

From: Ikuta, by Sembo Motoyaso, translated by Arthur Waley (Ten Minute Play)

Genre: Drama

Topic: Birth; Poem

Character: Male

Oh pitiful!

To see this child, born after me,

Darling that should be gay as a flower,

Walking in tattered coat of old black cloth.

Alas!

Child, when your love of me

Led you to Kamo shrine, praying to the God

That, though but in a dream,

You might behold my face,

The God of Kamo, full of pity, came

To Yama, king of Hell.

King Yama listened and ordained for me

A moment's respite, but hereafter, never.

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Priest - 02

From: Ikuta, by Sembo Motoyaso, translated by Arthur Waley (Ten Minute Play)

Genre: Drama

Topic: Pilgrimage

Character: Neutral

It is indeed a wonderful message that the God has sent you. And why should I go back at once to Kurodani? I had best take you straight to the forest if Ikuta. Let us be going.

 (describing the journey)

From the shrine of Kamo,

From under the shadow of the hills,

We set out swiftly;

Past Yamazaki to the fog-bound

Shores of Minasé;

And onward where the gale

Tears travellers' coats and winds about their bones.

"Autumn has come to woods where yesterday

We might have plucked the green."

To Settsu, to those woods of Ikuta

Lo! we are come.

 We have gone so fast that here we are already at the woods of Ikuta in the country of Settsu. I have heard tell in the Capital of the beauty of these woods and the river that runs through them. But what I see no surpasses all that I have heard.

 Look! Those meadows must be the Downs of Ikuta. Let us go nearer and admire them.

 But while we have been going about looking at one view and another, the day has dusked.

 I think I see a light over there. There must be a house. Let us go to it and ask for lodging.

[themonologuearchive]

Atsumori - 01

From: Ikuta, by Sembo Motoyaso, translated by Arthur Waley (Ten Minute Play)

Genre: Drama

Topic: Being; Poem

Character: Male

Beauty, perception, knowledge, motion, consciousness,--

The Five Attributes of Being,--

All are vain mockery.

How comes it that men prize

So weak a thing as body?

For the soul that guards it from corruption

Suddenly to the night-moon flies,

And the poor naked ghost wails desolate

In the autumn wind.

 Oh! I am lonely! I am lonely!

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Atsumori - 03

From: Ikuta, by Sembo Motoyaso, translated by Arthur Waley (Ten Minute Play)

Genre: Drama

Topic: The Past

Character: Male

When the house of Taira was in its pride,

When its glory was young,

Among the flowers we sported,

Among birds, wind and moonlight;

With pipes and strings, with song and verse

We welcomed Springs and Autumns.

Till at last, because our time was come,

Across the bridges of Kiso a host unseen

Swept and devoured us.

Then the whole clan

Our lord leading

Fled from the City of Flowers.

By paths untrodden

To the Western Sea our journey brought us.

Lakes and hills we crossed

Till we ourselves grew to be like wild men.

At last by mountain ways--

We too tossed hither and thither like its waves--

To Suma came we,

To the First Valley and the woods of Ikuta.

And now while all of us,

We children of Taira, were light of heart

Because our homes were near,

Suddenly our foes in great strength appeared.

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Priest - 01

From: Ikuta, by Sembo Motoyaso, translated by Arthur Waley (Ten Minute Play)

Genre: Drama

Topic: Finding a Child

Character: Neutral

I am one that serves Honen Shonin of Kurodani; and as for this child here,--once when Honen was on a visit to the Temple of Kamo he saw a box lying under a trailing fir-tree; and when he raised the lid, what should he find inside but a lovely man-child one year old! It did not seem to be more than a common foundling, but my master in his compassion took the infant home with him. Ever since then he has had it in his care, doing all that was needful for it; and now the boy is over ten years old.

 But it is a hard thing to have no father or mother, so one day after his preaching the Shonin told the child's story. And sure enough a young woman stepped out from among the hearers and said it was her child. And when he took her aside and questioned her, he found that the child's father was Taira no Atsumori, who had fallen in battle at Ichi-no-Tani years ago. When the boy was told of this, he longed earnestly to see his father's face, were it but a dream, and the Shonin bade him go and pray at the shrine of Kamo. He was to go every day for a week, and this is the last day.

 That is why I have brought him out with me.

But here we are at the Kamo Shrine.

Pray well, boy, pray well!

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Boy - 01

From: Ikuta, by Sembo Motoyaso, translated by Arthur Waley (Ten Minute Play)

Genre: Drama

Topic: Payer; Dreaming

Character: Male

How fills my heart with awe

When I behold the crimson palisade

Of this abode of gods!

Oh may my heart be clean

As the River of Ablution;

And the God's kindness deep

As its unfathomed waters. Show to me,

Though it were but in dream,

My father's face and form.

Is not my heart so ground away with prayer,

So smooth that it will slip

Unfelt into the favour of the gods?

But thou too, Censor of our prayers,

God of Tadasu, on the gods prevail

That what I crave may be!

 How strange! While I was praying I fell half-asleep and had a wonderful dream.