Free The Noh Plays of Japan by Arthur Waley

live there. Yet I heard a voice speaking within. Perhaps some beggar lodges there; I will not go nearer. (She steps back. )
    KAGEKIYO
    Though my eyes see not autumn
    Yet has the wind brought tiding
    GIRL
    Of one who wanders
    By ways unknown bewildered,
    Finding rest nowhere—
    KAGEKIYO
    For in the Three Worlds of Being
    Nowhere is rest, * but only
    In the Void Eternal.
    None is, and none can answer
    Where to thy asking.
    ATTENDANT (going up to KAGEKIYO'S hut )
    I have come to your cottage to ask you something.
    KAGEKIYO
    What is it you want?
    ATTENDANT
    Can you tell me where the exile lives?
    KAGEKIYO
    The exile? What exile do you mean? Tell me his name.
    ATTENDANT
    We are looking for Kagekiyo the Passionate who fought for the Taira.
    KAGEKIYO
    I have heard of him indeed. But I am blind, and have not seen him. I have heard such sad tales of his plight that I needs must pity him. Go further; ask elsewhere.
    ATTENDANT ( to GIRL , who has been waiting )
    It does not seem that we shall find him here. Let us go further and ask again. (They pass on. )
    KAGEKIYO
    Who can it be that is asking for me? What if it should be the child of this blind man? For long ago when I was at Atsuta in Owari I courted a woman and had a child by her. But since the child was a girl, I thought I would get no good of her and left her with the headman of the valley of Kamegaye. But she was not content to stay with her foster-parents and has come all this way to meet her true father.
    CHORUS
    To hear a voice,
    To hear and not to see!
    Oh pity of blind eyes!
    I have let her pass by;
    I have not told my name;
    But it was love that bound me,
    Love's rope that held me.
    ATTENDANT (calling into the side-bridge )
    Hie! Is there any villager about?
    VILLAGER (raising the curtain that divides the side-bridge from the stage )
    What do you want with me?
    ATTENDANT
    Do you know where the exile lives?
    VILLAGER
    The exile? What exile is it you are asking for?
    ATTENDANT
    One called Kagekiyo the Passionate who fought for the Taira.
    VILLAGER
    Did you not see someone in a thatched hut under the hillside as you came along?
    ATTENDANT
    Why, we saw a blind beggar in a thatched hut.
    VILLAGER
    That blind beggar is your man. He is Kagekiyo.
(The GIRL starts and trembles. )
    But why does your lady tremble when I tell you that he is Kagekiyo? What is amiss with her?
    ATTENDANT
    No wonder that you ask. I will tell you at once; this lady is Kagekiyo's daughter. She has borne the toil of this journey because she longed to meet her father face to face. Please take her to him.
    VILLAGER
    She is Kagekiyo's daughter? How strange, how strange! But, lady, calm yourself and listen.
    Kagekiyo went blind in both his eyes, and finding himself helpless, shaved his head and called himself the beggar of Hy Å« ga. He begs a little from travelers; and we villagers are sorry for him and see to it that he does not starve. Perhaps he would not tell you his name because he was ashamed of what he has become. But if you will come with me I will shout "Kagekiyo" at him. He will surely answer to his own name. Then you shall go to him and talk of what you will, old times or now. Please come this way.
    ( They go towards the hut. )
    Hie, Kagekiyo, Kagekiyo! Are you there, Kagekiyo the Passionate?
    KAGEKIYO (stopping his ears with his hands, irritably )
    Noise, noise!
    Silence! I was vexed already. For a while ago there came travelers from my home! Do you think I let them stay? No, no. I could not show them my loathsomeness...It was hard to let them go— not tell them my name!
    A thousand rivers of tears soften my sleeve!
    A thousand, thousand things I do in dream
    And wake to idleness! Oh I am resolved
    To be in the world as one who is not in the world.
    Let them shout "Kagekiyo, Kagekiyo":
    Need beggars answer?
    Moreover, in this land I have a name.
    CHORUS
    "In Hy Å« ga sunward-facing
    A fit name found I.
    Oh call me not by the name
    Of old days that have dropped
    Like the bow from a stricken