  Scene: Room in a farmhouse above Siangtan, where the Siang flows among hills. The rear of room has wide exit to a porch, beyond which show the tops of pear and peach trees in full bloom. Steps lead down to the orchard, and the orchard slopes to the river. Wong Fe and So Siu present. Wong Fe My lily So Siu, has not the dishonorable color left my wretched cheeks? Is not my face like the dough before it goes into the oven? So Siu Oh, my golden Fe, pearls in the dawn are no fairer! Wong Fe But these cow-girl's tatters! Would not my gown of meadow-green mist with the peach-gold underrobe make me less haggard? So Siu When your lord, Yu Tai Shun, returns from the hills he will say—— Wong Fe Oh, what will he say? So Siu That the fairies have been your friends. They wove for you this robe of rose-leaves, and threw over you a gray cloud from the Witch's Mountain. (Wong Fe trips gaily, then with sudden surrender begins to weep.) So Siu Have no shame, beloved of miserable So Siu. Water must follow the fire. I am only a maid, but I know that when the honeymoon is without tears two pigs have married. Ah, wet my sleeve, my dear one, and not thine that will lie on the neck of the golden lord, Yu Tai Shun. Wong Fe When I awoke this morning the sunlight was on my pillow, but Yu Tai Shun was gone. All day I have not seen his face. And now the last swallow has left the sky. So Siu Why did Prince Ching and the young Japanese choose this day to be guests of Yu Tai Shun? It is sad for the wife when the friends of her lord find her alone. Yu Tai Shun will beat his doorstep for not calling him. Wong Fe He will! Prince Ching is almost his father. May his age climb as the hills, always nearer the sky! So Siu Indeed, you would be sitting alone in a cloud of sighs, not fast wedded to the bringer of dawn, Yu Tai Shun, if Prince Ching had not won his way to your brothers, the mighty princes, Wong Li and Wong Sen. Wong Fe I kiss his honorable dust! He shall live with my ancestors! And Makuro, the young Japanese, I shall love him too, for he is most dear to Yu Tai Shun. Do they still sit in the orchard? So Siu They have not moved, nor paused in their talking. Do you not hear? Like bees that cannot choose their flower. It may be that they have brought news to Yu Tai Shun, and his gloom will pass. Wong Fe No, I feel it was their coming, like a far cloud, that shadowed him. Oh, my So Siu, it will be darker now! So Siu I have sent tea and cakes to the orchard. Wong Fe It shall not be dark. Do not the fairies of the sun weave a white world out of the threads of midnight? I will pray to them. We must be merry, my lily So Siu. So Siu And why not? Wong Fe I shall dance to-night before Yu Tai Shun. (Tripping.) Is it not good to have feet? My honorable and glorious mamma weeps when I dance, but it is because she was born too soon and they crippled her beloved feet. So Siu How glad I am that the old world is gone when only the painted flower-girls could do the happy things! Wong Fe And it was my own lord, Yu Tai Shun, who made the earth new again! (She listens, suddenly still.) So Siu He is here! Wong Fe My darling So Siu.... So Siu I go! (Darts from room, right.) Wong Fe I would be dancing, but I cannot move. There are anchors of fear on my toes. (Enter Yu Tai Shun, left. He is dressed in gray flannels, of American pattern.) Shun (stopping before Wong Fe) I left a witch-cloud on the hills, and it has dropped down before me. (She courtesies to the floor. He snatches her up.) Shun No! I want my Western bride to-night. Wong Fe But this is a Chinese orchard, and it is springtime. Let me worship a little. Shun Never, my mountain bird! (Draws her to the steps, where they sit.) Wong Fe You are weary, beloved? Shun Not now. I have my rest. To-morrow you shall go with me. Wong Fe Up the mountain? Shun I will show you where I dropped the storm in my heart. Wong Fe (timidly) Will it come again, Yu Tai Shun? Shun Nothing can wake it again. Wong Fe Then indeed I am your bride! Shun Heart of my body art thou, Wong Fe! (Holds her to his breast a moment, looking distantly out. Suddenly sees his friends approaching.) Shun We have guests? Wong Fe (quickly springing up) Forgive me! Your friends are here. Prince Ching, and Makuro, from Japan. Shun Makuro? (He throws up his right hand. In a moment Prince Ching and Makuro are seen advancing from the orchard.) Wong Fe They have had my welcome. I leave you. (Crosses to right, reluctantly.) Shun Return to us soon, my gold of the morning. (She goes out. Ching and the Japanese enter.) Ching We have waited, Yu Tai Shun. We knew that the setting sun would turn a bridegroom home. Makuro Master! Shun My friend! What brings you to China? Makuro (with steady gaze) You know. I have come for you. Shun (stubbornly, as if chidden) My work is done. China is free. Ching Her slavery is only beginning. You may hide your body but you cannot bury your mind under peach-blossoms. Shun The republic is established. Ching But not a democracy. Shun My work is done. Twenty years have I given to the cause of the people. Now until I die I will toil and sing in the fields of my fathers. (They have gradually come to centre of room, which servants have lighted. Wong Fe silently returns, but at a sign from Ching she retreats and remains by wall, right, participating in the scene that follows, though Yu Tai Shun and Makuro are unaware of her presence.) Makuro Do you remember when I stood here once before, Yu Tai Shun? Shun Can you ask me that, Makuro? Makuro Why not, when you seem to have forgotten all that passed between us? I went from that meeting with an imperishable fire in my heart. I return, and the light that kindled mine is dark. We stood here, and the words you spoke were brighter than the lamps of Siangtan that we looked down upon. Shall I repeat them, Yu Tai Shun? (Shun is silent.) Ching I would hear them, Makuro. Makuro The master said: "Forty centuries has China been content to plough, to sow, to reap, and with Shun Yes ... my words. Makuro That was five years ago. From all parts of the earth come powers fulfilling your fear. Leagued with our own purblind princes and dwellers in the dusk, they hover over China, waiting for war and bribery to dismember her. And you say your work is done. Yu Tai Shun, where have you buried my master? Ching In the heart of the Princess Wong Fe. Shun (rallying) May we not be too stern in our judgment of the lords of steam and iron? Lei Kung Sang and the British minister of the So-nan mineral beds have built houses for the people. Ching And have taken their land. Men who plucked their own fruit, and took food from their own gardens, now cannot eat until they have torn new treasure out of the earth for the kind Briton and the good Lei Kung Sang. Shun Their days of work were always long and weary. Ching But they toiled as free men in the sun, and as free men sang from the river-boats when the moon rose. In America, where there is still much land and few people, there are places where children go down into the mines and never see the sun except on the day they call "holy." How will it be with China's four hundred millions, when there are not even waste places where those who would flee may gather? For even her great untilled spaces are being covered by the foreign hand. Makuro Slavery will be born again with depths the ancients never knew. Shun But the spirit of brotherhood is growing. Makuro Power has no brothers! It was you who taught me that, Yu Tai Shun. Shun Do you forget that we built our republic with the aid of these same princes of power? Ching We forget nothing. They let us beat down the throne because they could not use it—a rigid tradition—but the republic—they are the republic! Shun Can we not trust a little? In our greatest need, alien hands have reached out to help us. And we have true hearts among our Chinese lords. Not all have joined with the invader to herd the people into slave-yards. Pei Chen-Ping and Sa Yi are most liberal. You, Prince Ching, and those you gather to you, have hearts like the rising sun. And the noble princes of the house of Wong—have they not given me my bride? Ching Ay, when your sighs had blown around the world for seven years, they yielded her. You were a power to be checked, and they set a woman in your path. Shun No! Ching It was a Japanese from the Fushun collieries, a Russian prince of the Northern railways, a French buyer of Yunnan copper, a British ship-baron of Hongkong, and the Chinese owners of the unworked gold veins of Szechuan, who went to the brothers of Wong Fe and said: "Give Yu Tai Shun his bride." Shun It was you who spoke for me! Ching You had no father, and in my heart you were my son. I spoke for you because I believed in you. I did not think that any bribe could lure you from us. Yours was a soul that we thought would be a torch to every nation of earth. And you choose to go out like a candle in the breath of a woman. (Yu Tai Shun is bowed and silent. Makuro touches his sleeve.) Makuro Come with us, master. Ching In half an hour the boat will stop at the orchard pier for Makuro. He starts for Japan. It is there you are needed. Makuro I come from our friends with their summons. Japan's oligarchy of traders, with every means known to power—school, religion, racial pride and hate—is fostering the spirit of war. All the seeds of the jungle are being deliberately sown once more in men's hearts. They are preparing Japan to hold the largest share of an industrially broken China and weld her millions into one instrument of hate against the West. Shun A pigmy's dream! Ching A dream that will come true if our giants continue to sleep. Makuro It is the menace of America that Japan holds before her people till their hearts roll with fear, their brains grow sick with rage. America, who has insulted us with exclusion—who has snatched Shun (with great effort) I cannot go. If I part from Wong Fe the blood will leave my veins and flow back to her. Makuro Then take her with you. Shun You know what this journey means. Ching Yes, you must go free. With such a weight you would be useless. I will take Wong Fe to her brothers. Shun I shall hold her forever! Ching You think joy can last so long? (To Makuro, shrugging.) A boy yet! Shun In Japan you have my young scholar, Onoto. All my knowledge I have given him. In his heart is my purpose, his eyes hold my vision. Makuro Onoto! Shun His years are younger, his flame will leap higher. I am only one who fails you. In every nation our numbers are growing. Do not fear for humanity. Our brothers are everywhere. Makuro You say Onoto? Shun He has the gift of the shining word—the word that draws the heart as a full moon at sea draws the eye. I can turn my back on the world and rob it of nothing, for I have given it Onoto. Ching How long have you been chirping here like a cricket under a leaf, with no news from the roadside? Shun It is three weeks to-day since I brought Wong Fe to the door of my fathers. Ching Three weeks! On the very day of your joy Onoto was thrown into prison. Shun They would not dare! Makuro They did dare. Shun In prison—Onoto! Makuro No, he is not now in prison. Shun Free? Makuro The enmity of the powers was bitter. Everywhere he was sowing the seed of peace. In many a house the ancestral sword was broken at his bidding. Shun But he is free? Makuro Yesterday (glances out at the stars), at this hour, he was shot. Shun (slowly comprehending) Then I have been twenty-four hours dead. (He steps uncertainly out to the little porch. They gaze at the floor, respecting his grief. Wong Fe makes a motion to follow him. Ching stops her with a gesture, and she shrinks back. Yu Tai Shun re-enters.) Shun Your mercy, friends. (Crosses left, to exit.) Ching You will go with us now? Shun (turns and hurls the word) No! (An instant of silence follows his exit, then Wong Fe comes forward.) Wong Fe Peace to your hearts, honorable friends of Yu Tai Shun! He will depart with you. Ching Not yet. We must wait. Invisible chains cannot be broken. But they will disunite of themselves. Then he will come. Wong Fe I will send him with you to-night. Ching You send him? Wong Fe Do you think I will divide his life so that the two halves can bear no fruit? That I will wait until he hates me for that ruin? Ching (with laughter) Hates you, oh princess! Wong Fe Wait till I must glean in his heart behind a spent passion?—like a poor widow in the track of a grain-cart? Ching The coral of your lips will defeat their command, Wong Fe. Near you he is a dry fagot seized by a flame. Wong Fe I tell you he will go! Wait in the orchard until you hear the first whistle of the boat. Then come for him. He will be ready. Go, honorable friends! He is returning. Ching It is useless. Your words may bite like winter, but his eyes will see only the Spring morning. Wong Fe Go, I beg you, go! (They pass out down the steps of porch. Wong Fe hurries to a small table, opens a lacquered box and takes from it a stiletto, which she hides in the folds of her sleeve. She is dancing as Yu Tai Shun enters, and sings as she dances.) The thousand odors of Spring Are the thousand arms of love. They find thee in the valleys, On the crest of the hills they reach thee; Till Spring bear no fragrance Thou canst not escape them, The thousand arms of love! The orchard pool is a pillow, A pillow for the twin lotus, And the wings of the flying geese Are warm in the air of heaven; They drop to the shadowy lake-sedge, For sweet looks the earth from the roads of the sky, And in heaven are no cool grasses. Ever listening Are the leaves of the slim dryanda, Whose heart is the harp of the Spring-wind. A dryanda-tree is my lover, And my thoughts are the leaves that listen. Autumn, Autumn, touch not my leaf-thoughts! Cast them not down when the pool is grey, And the teal no more sail two and two With their breasts above one shadow. Shun Come to me, Wong Fe! I feel that you have blown through my door like a rose petal, and will Wong Fe Neither in life nor in death shall I leave you, my lord. Though I seem to die, and these graces that please you fall to earth like willow-blossoms, it is not I that will lie on the sand. Shun Why do you speak of death, Wong Fe? Wong Fe Because I am so happy. The sages say that we can have no fairer fortune than to die in our happiest moment. Shun Do not speak of death. The word blisters the air, though your lips be as two drops of June rain. Wong Fe But how sweet to die when I am fairest in your eyes! Every year, at this time, you would walk down the peach-flower lanes and recall the glow of my cheek. Oh, Heaven, let me not be a faded wife in the blooming time of the year! Shun Thy soul, Wong Fe, is the flower of my worship. Wong Fe And death would give my soul wholly to you. Shun To-morrow we shall go together. Your shadow will be with mine on the rocks, and under the fir-trees we shall forget the valley. Wong Fe And the world? Oh, my lord, there are distances farther than the peaks of Siang, and they will call you from me. It cannot be that you who have known all lands will be content with one. I would see the strange people you have made your brothers, would listen to their dreams, and read the future with their hearts. There are dangers you would not let my body share—I do not ask that—but my soul, you could forbid it nothing. Shun What have you heard? What has Makuro said to you? Wong Fe What should he say but that the cakes were good, and the tea had the flavor of the fields of Hunan? Shun We must join our friends. Where do they wait? Wong Fe They listen for the boat that will stop at the foot of the orchard. Why do they go? Old friends should not be so brief in greeting. Could they not stay one night? Shun No—no. (Sits down.) They must go. Wong Fe (laying her hand on his shoulder) What voice dost thou hear, and wilt not answer? Shun Nothing—nothing. Wong Fe You will not long be deaf between the beating of our two hearts. You will hear and go. That is why I long for the death-fairy to come in my hour of happiness. You have joined with strong men to lift a heavy yoke from the world. My smiles cannot feed your spirit. Go with your friends. Let the whistle of the boat part us. Shun The cassia-tree may draw itself from earth, and walk on feet of roots through the world, but I cannot divide my days from yours, for you are myself, Wong Fe. Wong Fe (resigned) I believe you, my lord. We shall not part. Shun You throw me a kiss. Wong Fe So I do! And now, my soul's light? (Takes stiletto from her sleeve. The whistle of the boat is heard. He turns. She hides stiletto.) Shun Our friends are going. Wong Fe But wait—there is time. You must guess once more! Oh, you are slow as ten turns of a river! There! (Turns his head with her hands, then snatches the stiletto, stabs herself and falls. He turns, kneels dazedly, and takes her in his arms as she dies. Ching and Makuro enter.) Ching The boat— (Stops in consternation.) Makuro (softly) Master, I did not ask this price. Shun (rising) It is paid. (CURTAIN) |
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