Free The Golden Country by Shusaku Endo
Authors: Shusaku Endo
teaching. There'll be no priest to take your place and to confer on the people your living waters. I am the only remaining priest in this country. Do you wish this last light to be quenched? Please answer. O Lord, in this difficult time I can't decide what to do without your help. I'm now blind. So blind that I can't even see into myself. Lord, why are you silent? You are always silent.
A voice is heard laughing.
FERREIRA: What is that laugh?
He plugs his ears.
FERREIRA: What is that laugh.
The spotlight turns now to Kasuke and Hatsu.
KASUKE: What's Father doing?
HATSU: He's been closed up in his room for a long time. He doesn't come out.
KASUKE: So, after all...
HATSU: Kasuke, the day after tomorrow they bring the fumi-e.
KASUKE: Don't even speak about it.
HATSU: But if Father goes to the bureau, they'll pretend not to know about us. The man from the bureau said so.
KASUKE: We can hardly rely on their word. It's as Father said. The officials at the bureau are not the kind of men that keep their promises.
HATSU: But there's no other way of being saved than by trusting in their promises. Have you thought about that?
KASUKE: Ah, if only God would come to our help in such a time!
HATSU: Is there any possibility of that? If there were, then he would have been watching over the lives of the Christians long before. When Kiheie of Omura was taken, we prayed very hard, but Kiheie was burned to death all the same. When the mother of Jiro of Isahaya was taken, then too God simply folded his arms and looked the other way.
KASUKE: What are you trying to say?
HATSU: I'm just putting into words what all of you are thinking but are afraid to say. You, Kasuke, the day after tomorrow when the fumi-e comes... you'll lift your hands in prayer. But God won't hear you. He won't come to your help. You'll meet the same fate as Jiro's mother.
KASUKE: Why do you torture me like this?
HATSU: Listen, Kasuke. There's only one way to save the life of Lord Tomonaga and protect the people of the village.
KASUKE: What way?
HATSU: Won't you go with me to the bureau? We can offer to exchange information concerning Father's whereabouts for the life of Lord Tomonaga.
KASUKE: Those are terrible words.
HATSU: Then you place but little value on your life. Do you want to hang upside down in the pit like Lord Tomonaga?
The spotlight shifts back to Ferreira. He still hears a voice laughing.
FERREIRA: Who's laughing? Am I deceiving myself? Is that your meaning? That laugh! Is it laughing at me? Yes, it's true. I've been telling lies to myself. And not only to myself. I've been lying also to you, Lord. The truth is that I'm frightened. I'm afraid of being killed. That's why I won't go to the bureau. That's why I won't go even to help Tomonaga and the farmers. I've taught many people how glorious it is to die a martyr's death and yet when I'm pushed to it, I tremble with fear like this. How foul, how foul. 0 Lord, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me, but not my will but thine be done. "And now Christ was in agony and prayed still more earnestly; his sweat fell to the ground like thick drops of blood."
CURTAIN
----
ACT THREE SCENE ONE
----
The same scene as Act one, Scene one, Inoue's Bureau of Investigation. A painting of Christ hangs on the wall.
HIRATA: I wonder if Christ really looked like that.
INOUE: No. According to the Fathers, there's nothing written anywhere about how Christ looked.
He takes up another painting of Christ.
INOUE: This was painted by the Italian Giovanni Niccolo, who came to Nagasaki in 1585.
HIRATA: I've only heard the name. He must be the one who introduced the Japanese artists to European painting.
He inspects it.
HIRATA: But this Christ has the same face as the other. And these were all painted from imagination!
INOUE: Not just imagination. If there is any face that artists beyond the seas have conceived out of their dreams and longings, it is this face. They painted it as the most beautiful of all human
A voice is heard laughing.
FERREIRA: What is that laugh?
He plugs his ears.
FERREIRA: What is that laugh.
The spotlight turns now to Kasuke and Hatsu.
KASUKE: What's Father doing?
HATSU: He's been closed up in his room for a long time. He doesn't come out.
KASUKE: So, after all...
HATSU: Kasuke, the day after tomorrow they bring the fumi-e.
KASUKE: Don't even speak about it.
HATSU: But if Father goes to the bureau, they'll pretend not to know about us. The man from the bureau said so.
KASUKE: We can hardly rely on their word. It's as Father said. The officials at the bureau are not the kind of men that keep their promises.
HATSU: But there's no other way of being saved than by trusting in their promises. Have you thought about that?
KASUKE: Ah, if only God would come to our help in such a time!
HATSU: Is there any possibility of that? If there were, then he would have been watching over the lives of the Christians long before. When Kiheie of Omura was taken, we prayed very hard, but Kiheie was burned to death all the same. When the mother of Jiro of Isahaya was taken, then too God simply folded his arms and looked the other way.
KASUKE: What are you trying to say?
HATSU: I'm just putting into words what all of you are thinking but are afraid to say. You, Kasuke, the day after tomorrow when the fumi-e comes... you'll lift your hands in prayer. But God won't hear you. He won't come to your help. You'll meet the same fate as Jiro's mother.
KASUKE: Why do you torture me like this?
HATSU: Listen, Kasuke. There's only one way to save the life of Lord Tomonaga and protect the people of the village.
KASUKE: What way?
HATSU: Won't you go with me to the bureau? We can offer to exchange information concerning Father's whereabouts for the life of Lord Tomonaga.
KASUKE: Those are terrible words.
HATSU: Then you place but little value on your life. Do you want to hang upside down in the pit like Lord Tomonaga?
The spotlight shifts back to Ferreira. He still hears a voice laughing.
FERREIRA: Who's laughing? Am I deceiving myself? Is that your meaning? That laugh! Is it laughing at me? Yes, it's true. I've been telling lies to myself. And not only to myself. I've been lying also to you, Lord. The truth is that I'm frightened. I'm afraid of being killed. That's why I won't go to the bureau. That's why I won't go even to help Tomonaga and the farmers. I've taught many people how glorious it is to die a martyr's death and yet when I'm pushed to it, I tremble with fear like this. How foul, how foul. 0 Lord, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me, but not my will but thine be done. "And now Christ was in agony and prayed still more earnestly; his sweat fell to the ground like thick drops of blood."
CURTAIN
----
ACT THREE SCENE ONE
----
The same scene as Act one, Scene one, Inoue's Bureau of Investigation. A painting of Christ hangs on the wall.
HIRATA: I wonder if Christ really looked like that.
INOUE: No. According to the Fathers, there's nothing written anywhere about how Christ looked.
He takes up another painting of Christ.
INOUE: This was painted by the Italian Giovanni Niccolo, who came to Nagasaki in 1585.
HIRATA: I've only heard the name. He must be the one who introduced the Japanese artists to European painting.
He inspects it.
HIRATA: But this Christ has the same face as the other. And these were all painted from imagination!
INOUE: Not just imagination. If there is any face that artists beyond the seas have conceived out of their dreams and longings, it is this face. They painted it as the most beautiful of all human
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