Plays quotes

And what is it that thus hath made thee mad?

Because I have been parted from my only child my mind is all deranged.

O sad to hear! I see that thou dost carry a lovely net, to scoop up the blossoms floating by. Moreover thou dost wear an earnest look of faith. What is the meaning of this?

Scene II begins with the appearance of the Second Shite, that is to say, a bright apparition of Genji in supernatural form.

How beautiful this sea is! When I trod the grass here I was called “Genji the gleaming,” and now from the vaulting heaven I reach down to set a magic on mortals.

I sing of the moon in this shadow, here on this sea-marge of Suma. Here I will dance Sei-kai-ha, the blue dance of the sea waves. And then he begins to dance.

tangled up as the grass patterns are tangled up in this coarse cloth, or as the little Mushi that lives on and chirrups in dried seaweed. We do not know where are today our tears in the undergrowth of this eternal wilderness.

We neither wake nor sleep, and passing our nights in a sorrow which is in the end a vision, what are these scenes of spring to us?

This thinking in sleep of someone who has no thought of you, is it more than a dream? and yet surely it is the natural way of love.

We do not know where are today our tears in the undergrowth of this eternal wilderness. We neither wake nor sleep, and passing our nights in a sorrow which is in the end a vision, what are these scenes of spring to us?

This thinking in sleep of someone who has no thought of you, is it more than a dream? and yet surely it is the natural way of love.

In our hearts there is much and in our bodies nothing, and we do nothing at all, and only the waters of the river of tears flow quickly.

Ah well now, that’s a disappointment. Here they call the wood “Nishikigi,” and the woven stuff “Hosonuno,” and yet you come saying that you have never heard why, and never heard the story. Is it reasonable?

No, no, that is reasonable enough. What can people be expected to know of these affairs when it is more than they can do to keep abreast of their own?

To the Priest. Ah well, you look like a person who has abandoned the world; it is reasonable enough that you should not know the worth of wands and cloths with love’s signs painted upon them, with love’s marks painted and dyed.

… of the man we would meet with, and let the others lie, although a man might come for a hundred nights, it may be, or for a thousand nights in three years, till there were a thousand wands here in the shade of this mountain.

We know the funeral cave of such a man, one who had watched out the thousand nights; a bright cave, for they buried him with all his wands.

They have named it the “Cave of the many charms.”

Were set up a thousand times; Then, now, and for always.

Shall I ever at last see into that room of hers, which no other sight has traversed?

Happy at last and well-starred, Now comes the eve of betrothal: We meet for the wine-cup.

It is told in her song, I believe, that Yamauba is an evil spirit living in the mountain.

An evil spirit in the mountain indeed! Since I too live amid the verdant hills, that means to say that her song concerns my own self.

The fact that this renowned singer sings it for many years, not pitying me at all, is the very cause of my resentment. Oh! How heartless! What an affront!

But wait, wait, oh, lady!

You would better sing the song after dark, under the shining moon; I will then reveal to you my true ghastly form.

The sad mountain valley that ever hurries to grow dark is now clothed by the sudden streaming clouds, in whose mystery, lo, Yamauba hides away, saying that she will again appear later, and dance wildly to the singer’s nocturnal song.

To say good or bad, right or wrong, that is after all nothing so different;—what has one to repent? And what has one to delight in?

Go to Nature. Learn there a lesson of true perception!

The waterfall rushes down, and the rocks are steep. Lo, mountain over mountain! What carver carved such a wonderful shape of green granites? Lo, water on water! What dyer dyed such a pleasing colour of blue brocade?

If I were devoured at one mouthful! What terror! Oh! What a horror!

The lovely moment of the spring like this night is valued beyond a thousand pounds.

There is fragrance in the flowers; a shadow with the moon. Pray, do not idle away these precious spring moments. Sing quickly, sing quickly!

the bottomless depth of the Mumyo valley makes him lament over the bottomless delusion of human life. This Yamauba, the mountain she-devil, knows not where she was born or where is her home.

Carried ever by a cloud or water, she does know no place where she can not wander.

Sometimes she helps the poor woodman with his heaviest load, and kindly sees him off out of a mountain with the sunken moon. Sometimes she slides herself into the weaver’s busy window, and lightens the work of the woman with tangled threads.

There is the human being, and so here is a Yamauba too. Oh! What varied lives! What an interesting world! Oh what a beautiful Nature! Behold, the willow leaves ever so green, the flowers ever so red!

Oh, be true like Nature herself!

What am I? What am I?—I am nothing but the ever wandering spirit of life, when called by spring in the trees, to wander round a mountain for the smiling flower;—

In truth may we be named …

There is a saying, “Put away from you a wicked friend; summon to your side a virtuous enemy.” For you it was said, and you have proven it true.

And now come tell with us the tale of your confession, while the night is still dark.