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there. There must be a house. Let us go to it and ask for lodging.
    ATSUMORI (speaking from inside a hut ).
    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!
    PRIEST
    How strange! Inside that grass-hut I see a young soldier dressed in helmet and breastplate. What can he be doing there?
    ATSUMORI
    Oh foolish men, was it not to meet me that you came to this place? I am—oh! I am ashamed to say it—I am the ghost of what once was...Atsumori.
    BOY
    Atsumori? My father...
    CHORUS
    And lightly he ran,
Plucked at the warrior's sleeve,
And though his tears might seem like the long woe
Of nightingales that weep,
Yet were they tears of meeting-joy,
Of happiness too great for human heart.
So think we, yet oh that we might change
This fragile dream of joy
Into the lasting love of waking life!
    ATSUMORI
    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.
    CHORUS
    "The moon is sinking.
Come while the night is dark," he said,
"I will tell my tale."
    ATSUMORI
    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.
    CHORUS
    Noriyori, Yoshitsune—their hosts like clouds,
Like mists of spring.
For a little while we fought them,
But the day of our House was ended,
Our hearts weakened
That had been swift as arrows from the bowstring.
We scattered, scattered; till at last
To the deep waters of the Field of Life *
We came, but how we found there Death, not Life,
What profit were it to tell?
    ATSUMORI
    Who is that?
    (Pointing in terror at a figure which he sees off the stage.)
    Can it be Yama's messenger? He comes to tell me that I have outstayed my time. The Lord of Hell is angry: he asks why I am late?
    CHORUS
    So he spoke. But behold
Suddenly black clouds rise,
Earth and sky resound with the clash of arms;
War-demons innumerable
Flash fierce sparks from brandished spears.
    ATSUMORI
    The Shura foes who night and day
Come thick about me!
    CHORUS
    He waves his sword and rushes among them,
Hither and thither he runs slashing furiously;
Fire glints upon the steel.
But in a little while
The dark clouds recede;
The demons have vanished,
The moon shines unsullied;
The sky is ready for dawn.
    ATSUMORI
    Oh! I am ashamed...
And the child to see me so...
    CHORUS
    "To see my misery!
I must go back.
Oh pray for me; pray for me
When I am gone," he said,
And weeping, weeping,
Dropped the child's hand.
He has faded; he dwindles
Like the dew from rush-leaves
Of hazy meadows.
His form has vanished.
TSUNEMASA
    By Seami
    PERSONS
    THE PRIEST GYOKEI
    THE GHOST OF TAIRA NO TSUNEMASA
    CHORUS
    GYOKEI
    I am Gy ō kei, priest of the imperial temple Ninnaji. You must know that there was a certain