[1]The Sumida River formed the subject of a paper read before the Royal Society of Literature. The translators acknowledge with gratitude the kindness of the Council in allowing them to republish the major part of the verse in the form in which it appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature in 1909.
[2]Trans. Roy. Soc. Literature, London, vol. 29, pp. 156-7.
[3]Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan, vol. 35, pt. 4. 1908.
[6] The land and sea breezes, which blow regularly only in fine weather.
[7]Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan, vol. 38, pt. 3, p. 174.
[8] Page 39—This piece in the current original is called Motome-zuka, which means, the “Sought Tomb.” In older versions it was previously called Otome-zuka, meaning the “Maiden’s Tomb,” by which name the story was also known in the Yamato Monogatari (“Tales of Japan”), written nearly a thousand years ago. Otome and motome sounding so similar in Japanese, and, as the two men came seeking the tomb, the name was changed in the text of the Japanese No, but as the older name both has priority and is more euphonious I revert to the older title.
This piece is one of the eleven most important utais, and the Shite’s part is a particularly difficult one to chant.
[9] The long lines are translations of the “words” in the play. As these words are not ordinary prose it seems better not to put them into English prose from which they are so remote. (See p. 33.)
[10] Page 40—The original reads:—Ikuta on Ono no asakazeni nao saekaeru tamoto kana. Here the meaning is very confused, the word for sleeves (tamoto) following in the Japanese mind from kaeru (which means to turn) in saekaeru (it is cold).
[11] Page 40—This brings a picture to mind of the contrast between city and country life. An old institution among the well-to-do people of the capital is to make a pleasure picnic for the gathering of the young green shoots in very early spring. It was a general custom to eat the “seven greens” on the seventh day of January each year, and the poor people in the country hamlets make it one of their slender sources of revenue, to gather these green shoots early in January, for the city market.
[12] Page 41—Ikuta, the name of the hamlet, has the same sound, though it is written differently, as the Chinese character for numerous.
[13] Page 42—The Chinese character for the name Ono reads “little field”; then there is the suggestion that there is little in the way of green sprouts yet.
[14] Page 42—The word “prize” is left out in the original out of politeness.
[15] The three parts of this song are chanted in different tones.
[16] Page 43—Quotation from an old poem. The stanza speaks of the attractiveness of village maidens gathering young leaves.
[17] Page 43—Quotation from an old poem. The owner of the field is hoping that the time will soon come for plucking the shoots. He is impatient, and sends the watchman to see if it is not yet time. This idea leads up to “Likewise dost haste” in one of the following lines.
[19] Page 44—Still another quotation from an old poem, introduced for the word furu. “To fall” and “old” are both furu in Japanese, and “older leaves” in one of the following lines is furu ha.
[20] Page 44—i.e. Purple. As is common in Japanese poetry, the word purple is not actually used, but is called “the related colour.” As a colour the Japanese word Murasaki is purple, and it is also applied to a herb with deep purple-coloured flowers. This plant’s colour is so intensely purple that all the herbs growing near it are supposed to show the same colour. From such an idea purple colour is known in poetry as Yukari no iro (the related colour). In the present lines part of an old stanza is introduced for the sake of recalling the word murasaki, and this in turn leads on to yukari no na in the first line of the Chorus.
[21] Page 44—According to an old tale a lover, crossing a pontoon bridge, fell between the boats and was drowned. The Chorus supposes the heroine to be thinking, “Like this man I too died because of love, and the ‘Bridge of Love’ is a name which is related (see note 11) to my own destiny.”
[22] Page 45—The Shepherd’s Purse is one of the seven herbs. Choan is in China, and the old name of China was Kara, so that the mention of Choan brings Kara to mind, which in turn suggests the word karai, hot, used in the next line.
[23] Page 45—The dawn is sometimes called the “whitening” in Japanese.
[24] Note the change of person, of course she has really been speaking of herself from the beginning.
[25] Page 47—Ikuta means the living field, or field of life, and as she is about to die the name is meaningless to her.
[26] Page 47—Depending on an old poem in which the short growth of the summer horns is used to express the idea of brief time. An alternative translation of this line would be, “Short is my night’s sleep, short are a stag’s horns,” but these words do not convey to an English reader anything like the meaning the Japanese carries. In the original the word tsuka means either a “tomb” or a “grasp,” and it acts as a pivot word. In the sense of “tomb” it leads to the weeds growing on her tomb, which is the essential part; and in the sense of “grasp” it suggests shortness, and inasmuch as a stag’s horns are so short in summer as to be within the grasp of a hand, their shortness is suggested, and this in turn suggests a night’s sleep in summer. This train of thought would probably not occur had it not been rendered a classical picture by an old and well-known stanza.
[27] Page 48—He is using the words of the Buddhist scriptures. Though in popular belief the hells and torments, as well as the world, exist, yet the higher philosophy of Buddhism holds that all is appearance only, and that the soul that realises this frees itself from the sufferings and restrictions of the grosser existence.
[28] Page 52—Popular Buddhistic teaching postulates eight hells, (1) The hell of equality, where all sinners go first. (2) The hell of black rope, where they are tied and led by devil-jailors to (3) the hell of gathering. Then comes (4) the hell of cries, (5) of bitter cries, (6) the hell of heat, (7) of utmost heat, and lastly (8) the hell of infinite depth.
[29] Page 53—Kagekiyo’s full name is Aku-Shichibioe Kagekiyo. Aku—literally means “wicked”; but sometimes has a special meaning of “wild” or “boisterous,” as in the present case, where it intimates that the man is rough in manners and strong in arms.
[30] I have put this all in one metre, making no difference between the “words” and “song.” (See p. 33.)
[31] Page 56—In the original it reads, “Kamegaegayatsu in Kamakura”; but as this will not fit into any possible metre the first word is left out.
[32] Page 56—Taira becomes Hei when compounded with a following character; thus Taira House is Hei-Ke. Similarly “Minamoto” becomes Gen, thus Gen-ji is the Minamoto family.
[33] Page 57—Totomi, the name of one of the provinces through which they came, means “distant bay.” Also to or tou with a different ideagraph means “to ask.” Mikana, the name of another province through which they passed, means “three rivers,” which leads to the idea of bridges. But more than that, Mikana is noted for its eight bridges, spanning over the streams which branch off like the legs of a spider, which is kumo in Japanese; and this idea leads on to that of “clouds,” which are pronounced kumo, though written with a different ideagraph. The idea of “clouds” leads on, finally, to that of the “capital,” where only those of high rank “above the clouds” are dwelling.
[34] Page 59—Kagekiyo takes up Hitomaru’s words, originally used in a simple, physical sense, and applies them to the spiritual world. It is, nevertheless, not supposed to be a dialogue; each is soliloquising.
[35] Page 60—And therefore could play no part in his warlike schemes.
[36] Page 63—The Chinese character for the name of the province means “facing the sun.”
[37] Page 65—Meaning that if she had been a boy he would have welcomed her; but now he takes no account of her hardships and difficulties in reaching him.
[38] The words used give a suggestion of dew-like.
[39] Page 65—Proclaiming herself the child of an exile and beggar, to her social detriment.
[40] Page 66—The word sumu, “to live,” also signifies “clear,” which is associated in poetry with the moon, which in its turn leads to the thought of shadow, Kage leading to Kagekiyo.
[41] Page 66—A mythical animal, of which the nearest translation is perhaps the unicorn. There is a proverb which states that though it is the king of beasts, when old it is worse than a useless horse.
[43] Page 67—Yoshitsune’s complete name was Kuro Hang wan Yoshitsune. One of these, or all three names may be applied to him. As the three names make an impossible encumbrance for a line I only give him one, even where the Japanese original calls him by his full name.
[44] Page 68—The jointed cape of his opponent’s armour.
[45] Page 68—The Minamoto clan were victorious, and when in power they banished Kagekiyo as a specially dangerous enemy.
[46] The Chorus here speaks for Kagekiyo to Hitomaru.
[47] Or Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy, one of the principal deities in the popular religion of Japan to-day.
[52] Page 80—This is a particularly difficult passage. I had previously rendered the lines more freely than the rest of the translation, in an endeavour to construct a consecutive verse which might keep the attention of an English reader. In its present form the verse is perhaps nearer the original, but no entirely literal translation is possible of a passage so full of the essentially Japanese “pillow” and “pivot” words. At the outset the Mother quotes a few words from an old poem.
[53] Page 80—The Japanese word yuki means both “snow” and “going.”
[54] Page 81—Most of these three lines is added for the sake of rounding off the thought in English.
[55] Page 81—This is not the large commercial town of the same name.
[56] Page 82—The bond of the relationship between a parent and child. According to the Buddhistic belief, re-incarnation in the same relations of parent and child holds only for this world. (That between lovers is generally supposed to be of longer duration.)
[57] Page 82—Reference to an old Chinese fable of a bird who had four young, and was bitterly distressed when the time came for them to fly away.
[58] Page 82—Sumi means the corner, or end of everything.
[59] Page 83—Local ferries sometimes hindered strangers from the city, but she intimates that the Sumida is a river of too great importance to expect such treatment on it.
[60] Page 83—“That word” is the word for “repute,” which has a root the same as “if true the name” in the famous poem which she quotes. The line depends on one of the Japanese “pivot words.”
[61] Page 83—Narihira is one of the well-known early poets of Japan, he died in 880. Chamberlain, in his Classical Poetry of the Japanese, quotes an opinion of Tsurayuki (who died in 946) on Narihira. He says: “Narihira’s stanzas are so pregnant with meaning that the words suffice not to express it. He is like a closed flower that hath lost its colour, but whose fragrance yet remaineth.” Narihira is noted among the classical poets for his conciseness and frequent obscurity.
[62] Page 84—She is vexed with him for not entering into the spirit of the place and realising the quotation she has just given.
[63] Page 84—These lines depend on pivot words, which by playing upon the root words in the Japanese, connect the ideas prettily.
[64] Page 87—And therefore it appeared to them hopeless to expect him to recover from the illness.
[65] Page 88—The shadows of people are much more real in Japan than here. The shadow pictures that are continually thrown on the white paper screens separating the rooms must fill a large place in the memory of one who has lived in Japan; and, too, it is often only the feet of a passing noiseless maiden that one can see through the openwork base of these screens while one lies on the quilts on the matted floors.
[66] Page 91—This arises as a play on the words Hawa, a mother, and hawaki, a broom tree, and also refers to a legend about a broom tree which appeared and disappeared.
[67] Page 92—Time, therefore, for midnight prayer.
[68] Page 92—The gong in the Buddhist shrines is struck by the one who prays.
[69] Page 92—The West is the direction of the Buddhist heavens.
[70] Page 93—The words are from the Buddhist scriptures, according to which there are thirty-six million million worlds, all presided over by emanations of the same Buddha.
[71] The voice of the Child’s Spirit is heard accompanied by the Chorus’s chant.
