Michael Coy Poet Rhyme

The Wind In the Pines 3

3.   At the Cabin

("Noh" is an ancient Japanese style of 
drama, broadly similar to Elizabethan
tragedy.  "The Wind in the Pines" is
my version of a well-known Noh play.)

(The Chokugan  =  a shinto prayer.
The priest is protecting himself from
the ghosts.)


BUDDHIST PRIEST
Do you live here?

MURASAME
                            Why do you ask? Who are you?

BUDDHIST PRIEST
Just a traveler, benighted on my journey to ...

MATSUKAZE
What you request is little enough.
But our cabin is sparse, unfurnished, rough.
We are ashamed. It's far too humble. See?
We cannot offer hospitality.

BUDDHIST PRIEST
I am not looking for feathers or feast.
I am a simple, unassuming priest.
A fog is gathering swiftly around:
Please don't ask me to sleep on the ground.

MURASAME:
I am sorry. You cannot stay ...

MATSUKAZE
                                                   Wait!
The fog is freezing, and the hour is late.
The moon sails out from the refuge of a cloud,
and I see the form of a man who has vowed
to abandon all license. That, I admire.
Approach, holy man, our wretched fire.

BUDDHIST PRIEST
I am grateful, ladies. Yukihira,
the much-lamented young poet,
put it thus: "If anyone
should ever ask for me,
say I'm in paradise, and I know it:
in Kobe, enfolded by green sea,
and fine women, to dote upon:
no place could possibly be dearer".

MATSUKAZE
Aieee!


BUDDHIST PRIEST
              What's wrong, young woman?  See,
I prayed this morning, by the tall tree,
two-trunked and handsome. Nothing bad
can come this way. You look so sad!

MATSUKAZE
You have mentioned the name of our dead lover.

BUDDHIST PRIEST
A peasant told me of two women from here,
who both loved a Kyoto nobleman.
He composed exquisite poetry,
but sickness took him, in the prime of youth.

MURASAME
Aiee!

BUDDHIST PRIEST
I think I have stumbled into the truth!
You are the girls who live in the tree!
You gave your hearts to Yukihira,
and now you're ghosts! The Chokugan!

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Darren White March 10, 2017 at 12:45 AM I do not have much to say here, except that you made this into a wonderful play I'd like to see performed YOUR way with your translation. Will there be more? It seems incomplete to me :) Michael Coy March 10, 2017 at 5:49 AM Yes, there's more (be careful what you wish for!)