More Portmanteau Plays

O-KATSU-SAN

And you, Obaa-San.

O-SODE-SAN

How is the weeping willow tree, grandmother?

OBAA-SAN

It is there—close to me.

O-SODE-SAN

And does it speak to you, grandmother—

OBAA-SAN

I am no grandmother! I am no grandmother! I am no mother! O-Sode, can you not understand? I am no mother.—I am no wife.—There is no one.—I am only an old woman.—In the spring I see the world turn green and I hear the song of happy birds and feel the perfumed balmy air upon my cheek—and every spring that cheek is older and more wrinkled and I have always been alone. I see the stars on a summer night and listen for the dawn—and there never has been a strong hand to touch me nor tiny fingers to reach out for me. I have heard the crisp autumn winds fight the falling leaves and I have known that long winter days and nights were coming—and I have always been alone—alone. I have pretended to you—what else could I do? Grandmother! Grandmother! Every time you speak the name, the emptiness of my life stands before me like a royal Kakemono all covered with unliving people.

O-SODE-SAN

You never seemed to care.

OBAA-SAN

Did I not care! Grandmother! Grandmother! Why? Because I loved a weeping willow tree. Because to me it was real. It was my baby. But no lover ever came to woo. No words ever came to me.—Think you, O-Sode-San, that the song of birds in the branches is ease to an empty heart. Think you that the wind amongst the leaves soothes the mad unrest in here. (She beats her breast) I have no one—no one. I talk to my weeping willow tree—but there is no answer—no answer, O-Sode-San—only stillness—and yet—sometimes I think I hear a sigh.—Grandmother! Grandmother! There! Is that enough? I've bared my heart to you. Go spread the news—I am lonely and old—old.—I have always been lonely. Go spread the news.

O-KATSU-SAN

No, Obaa-San. We shall not spread the news. No one shall know.

O-SODE-SAN

But—we pity you.

OBAA-SAN

I need no pity.—Now my heart is unlocked. The dread Gaki of Kokoru who feeds upon unrest can come to me and feed upon my pain. I care not.

THE TREE

Hai! Hai! Hai!

O-KATSU-SAN

Someone sighs.

OBAA-SAN

Yes. It is my tree. Perhaps there, too, someone in deep distress is imprisoned—as I am imprisoned in this body.—Hai! You do not know. You do not know!

O-SODE-SAN

Obaa-San—we have been hurting. I never knew—I am sorry, Obaa-San.

O-KATSU-SAN

You have been lonely, Obaa-San, but you have always been lonely. I know the having and I know the losing.

O-SODE-SAN

Ay. 'Tis better to long for love than to have it—and then lose. Look at me, whom the villagers call the bitter one. He came to me so long ago.—It was spring, Obaa-San, and perfume filled the air and birds were singing and his voice was like the voice from the sky-dome—all clear and wonderful. Together we saw the cherry trees bloom—once: and on a summer night we saw the wonder of the firefly fête. My heart was young and life was beautiful. We watched the summer moon—and when the autumn came—Ai! Ai! Ai! Obaa-San.—I knew a time of love—and oh, the time of hopelessness! And I shut my heart. I did not see, Obaa-San.

OBAA-SAN

You knew his love, O-Sode-San. You touched his hand.

O-KATSU-SAN

But what is that? To her—my little girl—I gave all my dreams. I felt her baby hands in mine and in the night I could reach out to her. I lived for her. And then, one day—Obaa-San, I had known the joy of motherhood and I had known the ecstasy of—child—and now—Her little life with me was only a dream of spring, but still my back is warm with the touch of her babyhood. The little toys still dance before my eyes. Oh, that was long ago.—Now all is black.

OBAA-SAN

All blackness can never fill a mother's heart.—O-Katsu-San, you have known the baby's hand in yours. But I am old—and I have never known, can never know.—I'd go to the lowest hells if once I might but know the touch of my own child's hand.

THE TREE

Hai! Hai! Hai

OBAA-SAN

Just once—for one short day—to fill the empty place in my heart that has always been empty—and a pain—

O-SODE-SAN

Who is that man, Obaa-San?

OBAA-SAN

There? That is a stranger seeking for Kyushu.

O-KATSU-SAN

He seems to wish to speak to you.

OBAA-SAN

A strange man. 'Twas he who seemed to make me unlock my heart to you.

O-SODE-SAN

Then shall we go.—And we'll return, Obaa-San.

OBAA-SAN

Grandmother!

O-KATSU-SAN

We'll laugh no more.

[They leave. Obaa-San turns to the tree. The Gaki enters, strangely agitated.

THE GAKI

Obaa-San, for so they called you, tell me—did you say you'd go to the lowest hells if you might know the touch of your own child?

OBAA-SAN

Forever—could I but fill this emptiness in my mother-heart.

THE GAKI

Would you really pay?

OBAA-SAN

Yes, yes. But why do you ask?—Who are you?

THE GAKI

I am a stranger bound for Kyushu.

OBAA-SAN

Why do you, too, make sport of me?

THE GAKI

Go you into your house and come not till I call.

[Obaa-San obeys under a strange compulsion.

THE TREE

Hai! Hai! Hai

THE GAKI

You can not feed me now. That cry was the wind amongst your branches. Come. I bid you come to life, to human form.

THE TREE

I do not wish to come.

THE GAKI

I bid you come!

[When he touches the trunk of the tree, Aoyagi steps forth. She is small. Her little body is swathed in brown and from her arms hang long sleeves like the branches of the weeping willow. At first she shrinks. Then freedom takes hold on her and she opens her arms wide.

THE GAKI

You are free.

AOYAGI

Free!

THE GAKI

As free as one in life. You are bound to the tree as one might be bound to his body in a dream—but you may wander as one wanders in a dream—free until the waking—then when the tree suffers, you shall suffer. Though you be leagues away, you shall suffer.—But first you shall dream.—Now you are to be the daughter of Obaa-San.

AOYAGI

Oi!

THE GAKI

Do not call yet.—You are to wed the first young man who passes here and you are to follow him.

AOYAGI

But—Obaa-San?

THE GAKI

She shall feed me with her new-made misery.

AOYAGI

No—no—she loved me so!

THE GAKI

She shall feed me. You will be happy.

[He disappears.

AOYAGI

Free! And happy!

[The Gaki's voice is heard calling Obaa-San. She comes in and looks about. At last her old tired eyes see Aoyagi. For a moment they face each other.

AOYAGI

Hai.

OBAA-SAN

A dream!

AOYAGI

Mother—

[Obaa-San stands mute. She listens—yearning for the word again.

OBAA-SAN

Have you lost your way?

AOYAGI

No, mother—

[Obaa-San does not know what to think or do. A strange giddiness seizes on her and a great light fills her eyes.

OBAA-SAN

How beautiful the name! But I am only Obaa-San. Your mother—

[She shakes her old head sadly.

AOYAGI

Obaa-San, my mother.

[Obaa-San lays her hand upon her heart. Then she stretches out her arms.

OBAA-SAN

Obaa-San—your mother—where is my pain? And you—who are you?

AOYAGI

I am Aoyagi, mother.

OBAA-SAN

You have not lost your way?

AOYAGI

I have but just found my way.

OBAA-SAN

My pain is stilled. There is no emptiness. It is a dream—a dream of spring and butterflies—Aoyagi!

[She stretches out her arms and silently Aoyagi glides into them—as though they had always been waiting for her.

OBAA-SAN

I seem never to have known a time when you were not here.

AOYAGI

Oh, mother dear, it is now—and now is always, if we will.

OBAA-SAN

It seems as though the weeping willow tree had warmed and shown its heart to me.

AOYAGI

I am the Lady of the Weeping Willow tree!

OBAA-SAN

I care not who or what you are. You are here—close to my heart and I have waited always. I know I dream—I know.

AOYAGI

How long I've tried to speak to you!

OBAA-SAN

How long my heart has yearned for you!

AOYAGI

Mother!

[The Gaki appears.

THE GAKI

Such happiness. Already she has forgotten the coming of the man.

OBAA-SAN

Oh, how I've dreamed of you! When I was very, very young and had my little doll, I dreamed of you. I used to sing a lullaby and still I sing it in my heart:

See, baby, seeThe ears of the wolf are long;Sleep, baby, sleep,Your father is brave and strong.

I grew into womanhood and still I dreamed of you. And, dreaming still, I grew old. And all the world it seemed to me, made sport of my longing and my loneliness. The people of the village called me grandmother. The children echoed the grownups' cry and ran from me. Now—Aoyagi—you are here. Oh, the warmth—the peace. Come let me gather flowers for the house. Let me—

AOYAGI

Oh, mother, dear. I am so happy here.

OBAA-SAN (suddenly becoming the solicitous mother, she handles Aoyagi as one might handle a doll)

Are you—truly?—Are you warm?—You are hungry!

AOYAGI

No—I am just happy.

[She nestles close to Obaa-San. There is complete contentment.

OBAA-SAN

I shall bring you—a surprise.

[She darts into the house. Immediately The Gaki comes in.

THE GAKI

You seem very happy, Aoyagi. And your mother is very happy, too.—And I am hungry now.

AOYAGI

You will not hurt her! Let me go back to the Weeping Willow Tree—

THE GAKI

That would kill her—perhaps.

AOYAGI

No—no—I should be near her then—always.

THE GAKI

But where would I have my food? Not in your heart, not in hers—I should starve and I must live.

AOYAGI

What then?

THE GAKI

See!

[He points to the road. Aoyagi looks in that direction as The Gaki disappears. Riki comes in. Occasionally one may hear a bit of a lullaby sung in the old cracked voice of Obaa-San:

See, baby, seeThe ears of the wolf are long;Sleep, baby, sleep,Your father is brave and strong.

Riki is a poet, young, free, romantic. He faces Aoyagi a little moment as though a wonderful dragonfly had poised above his reflection in a pool.

RIKI

You are she!

AOYAGI

My—who—are—you?

RIKI

I am a poet—I have sought everywhere for you.

AOYAGI

I am the Lady of the Weeping Willow Tree!

RIKI

You are my love.

AOYAGI

I am the daughter of Obaa-San.

RIKI

I love you so!

AOYAGI

Yes—I love you so!—But I love Obaa-San, my mother—

RIKI

Come with me.

AOYAGI

But Obaa-San—

RIKI

Come with me. Butterfly, butterfly, alight upon the Willow Tree And if you rest not well, then fly home to me. See! I make a little verse for you.

AOYAGI

But—Obaa-San—is very old and very lonely.

RIKI

She is your mother.—She must be glad to let you go.

AOYAGI

She does not know you.

RIKI

I know you.

AOYAGI

Yes—but I can not leave Obaa-San.

RIKI

We can not stay with Obaa-San.

AOYAGI

Can we not take her with us?

RIKI

No—like the Oshidori—we can go only by two and two along the silent stream—and as Oshidori in silence and in happiness float on and on and seem to cleave the mirrored sky that lies deep within the dark waters, so we must go, we two, just you and I, to some silent place where only you and I may be—and look and look until we see the thousand years of love in each other's hearts.

AOYAGI

Something speaks to me above the pity for poor Obaa-San.

RIKI

It is love.

AOYAGI

I love Obaa-San.

RIKI

This is love beyond love. This is earth and air—sea and sky.

AOYAGI

I do not even know your name.

RIKI

What does my name matter? I am I—you are you.

AOYAGI

I love Obaa-San, my mother.—I feel happy in her arms;—I felt at peace;—but now I feel that I must go to you.—I am fearful—yet I must go.—You are—

RIKI

I am Riki. But what can Riki mean that already my eyes have not said?

AOYAGI

I feel a strange unrest—that is happiness.

RIKI

Come!

AOYAGI

First let me speak to Obaa-San.

RIKI

Look—out there—a mountain gleaming in the fresh spring air.—Amongst the trees I know a glade that waits for you and me.—A little stream comes plashing by and silver fishes leap from pool to pool—dazzling jewels in the leaf-broken sunlight. Tall bamboo trees planted deep in the father earth reach up to the sky.—And there the hand of some great god can reach down to us and feed our happiness—

AOYAGI

Riki—I must go—I feel the strong hand leading me—I feel the happy pain—I long—I would stay with Obaa-San; but, Riki, I must go.—Yon mountain gleaming in the sun—the bamboo trees—the silver fishes—you—

[Obaa-San enters carrying an armful of wistaria blossoms. She is radiant. Then—she sees the lovers—and she understands. The blossoms slip from her arms.

OBAA-SAN

When do you go?

AOYAGI

Obaa-San, my mother—something outside of me calls and I must obey.

OBAA-SAN

I understand.—It must be wonderful, my little daughter.

AOYAGI

Mother!—This is Riki.

OBAA-SAN

Riki!—See that you bring her happiness.

RIKI

I could not fail. I have searched for her always.

OBAA-SAN

We always search for someone—we humans.—Sometimes we find—sometimes we wait always.

AOYAGI

Riki, I must not go. Obaa-San is my mother—and I am all she has.

OBAA-SAN

Yes, Aoyagi, you are all I have and that is why I can let you go. Be happy—

AOYAGI

But you, my mother.

OBAA-SAN

For my sake, be happy. Some day I shall be Obaa-San no more—and what of you then? Go, my little darling, go with Riki.—Some day, you will return.

RIKI

We shall return some day, Obaa-San.

AOYAGI

Farewell.

[Very simply she steps into Obaa-San's outstretched arms and then, as though they had been forever empty, Obaa-San stands gazing into space with her arms outstretched. Aoyagi and Riki go out.

OBAA-SAN

Hai!—Hai!

[She lays her hand upon her heart and, looking into space, turns to the house. There is the empty tree—her empty heart! The Gaki comes in.

THE GAKI

Oi! Obaa-San!

[Obaa-San turns mechanically.

OBAA-SAN

Did you not find your way?

THE GAKI

I found my way.—But why this unhappiness in your eyes?

OBAA-SAN

I am very lonely. I have lived my lifelong dream of spring and butterflies a single instant—and it is gone.

[She turns to go.

THE GAKI

I feed! I feed!

[The voices of O-Sode and O-Katsu are heard calling Obaa-San.

Here are your friends again.

[O-Sode and O-Katsu come in.

O-SODE-SAN

Hai! Obaa-San, a little lady passed and told us you were lonely.

OBAA-SAN

I am lonely.—But I have always been lonely.

O-SODE-SAN

What has happened?

[The Gaki, hidden, has been triumphant. Suddenly he seems to shrivel as if drawn with rage.

OBAA-SAN

I waited, oh so long—you know.—I opened my arms.—My dream came true.—I sang my lullaby—to my child.—A lover came;—they have gone.

O-KATSU-SAN

She is a-wander in her mind.

OBAA-SAN

I opened my arms here—like this.—She stepped into them as though she had been there always—and now she has gone.—In one short moment I lived my mother-life.

O-SODE-SAN

It was magic! Come, Obaa-San, we'll make some prayers to burn.

O-KATSU-SAN

Some evil ghost.

OBAA-SAN

No! No! Some kindly spirit from the sky-dome came to me.—I have had one moment of happiness complete.—I dreamed and I have known. Now I shall dream again—a greater dream—a greater dream.

[The old women go into the house.

THE GAKI

What! I can not feed! My Lady of the Weeping Willow Tree is gone! Obaa-San has built a circle of happiness about her head. Hai! I shall die in this shape.—I must feed.—Perhaps she tries to trick me.—I shall listen.—Why does she not weep?—Why do they not wail?

[He starts for the house. As he nears it, the voice of Obaa-San is heard crooning the little lullaby:

See, baby, seeThe ears of the wolf are long;Sleep, baby, sleep,Your father is brave and strong.

THE GAKI (defeated, seems beside himself. Suddenly he looks out and sees the mountain-peak) I'll find them in the bamboo glade. Perhaps I can make unhappiness there. Riki and Aoyagi!

The Curtains Close

ACT II

A Bamboo Glade on the Mountain-side.

[The Gaki comes in.

THE GAKI

This is the glade on the mountain side—the glade where Aoyagi and Riki think to find their happiness. Here must I feed or I shall die in this shape.—Hai!—They come.

[Riki and Aoyagi enter.

RIKI

… and so like every other prince who is a real prince, he charged to the top of the hill before his men; and they, following him, fell upon the enemy and victory was theirs.

AOYAGI

And then—?

RIKI

And then the Princess laid her hand upon her heart.

AOYAGI

Is that all?

RIKI

Is that all? What more need there be?

AOYAGI

Did they not wed and have great happiness?

RIKI

You can answer that.

AOYAGI

I? I never heard the story before.

RIKI

One may always end a story—just right.

AOYAGI

Not a weeping willow tree?

RIKI

Even a weeping willow tree!

AOYAGI

How?

RIKI

I'll show you.—Stand right here.—So! I stand here.—Now look at me.

AOYAGI

I am looking.

RIKI

Place your hand upon your heart.

AOYAGI

Ay.

RIKI

Now I am the Prince. With sword in hand I come to you. From Kyushu to Koban I've fought my way to you;—through forest, marsh and mountain path I've striven for you. Now I am here.—Look at me.

AOYAGI

Ah!

[With a cry of delight she rushes to his arms.

RIKI

And did they wed?

AOYAGI

Ah, love beyond love.

RIKI

And did they have great happiness?

AOYAGI

Ah!

[She nestles close to him.

RIKI

My little princess! I did not come to you sword in hand; I did not fight my way from Kyushu to Koban. But I strove for you through forest, marsh and mountain pass.—Within me throbbed a mighty song that I could not sing. I saw almost all the world, it seems, and once I heard a voice that seemed to call to me alone. It was at the ferry of Ishiyama. I followed the sound—and there she stood all aglow in the morning sunlight. But when I saw, the song still throbbed within my heart and I could not sing to her.—Someone else called to me—"Hai! Hai! Hai!"

AOYAGI

And what of her—the vision at the ferry of Ishiyama?

RIKI

For all I know she may still be standing there in the morning sunlight all aglow.—I have found you!

AOYAGI

And was she—fair?

RIKI

Ay—how can I say? Now all the world is fair because I see only you in earth and sky and everything.

AOYAGI

She was aglow in the morning sun.

RIKI

How can I say? I heard her voice;—a song was in my heart—a song for you.—I saw her—the song staid locked in my heart for you.

AOYAGI

Riki—Riki—

RIKI

A dream that's true.

AOYAGI

I do not understand it all.—Obaa-San—you—this happiness.—I have known happiness, but not like this.—When I was in the weeping willow tree—sometimes I was happy and sometimes I was hurt.—Oh, Riki, Riki, this glade is like the weeping willow tree! Whenever the soft air sways the leaves, I feel the same sweet joy as when the little breezes played amongst my branches. The rain—oh, the gentle little rain that cooled me in the hot summer—the drops that danced from leaf to leaf and felt like smiles upon my face. Tears! The rain is not like tears, Riki.

RIKI

The dew is tears, perhaps.

AOYAGI

The dew! It came to me like a cool veil that the morning sun would lift and little breezes bear away. Then sometimes—the voice, the loneliness of Obaa-San.

RIKI

Look where her home lies. Far down there beyond that stream, see—there is Kyushu.

AOYAGI

Oh, Riki, my Riki, my august lord, why, why can I stay here in happiness with you when I know that Obaa-San is miserable and alone?

RIKI

I can not say? I only know that we are here—you and I—and we are happy. Two make a world, Aoyagi. Why? How? I do not know.

AOYAGI

Can we not send a message to Obaa-San?

RIKI

Yes. I shall go down the mountain to the road and tell some passer-by.

AOYAGI

And I?

RIKI

Sit here and rest—and watch the silver stream at Kyushu.

AOYAGI

I shall wait—I shall wait.

RIKI

Sayonara.

AOYAGI

Sayonara.—Sayonara, my august lord.

[Riki goes out. Aoyagi, left alone, feels the air in the old way. She sways slightly in the breeze, then flutters toward the steps.

Oh, Kyushu! The silver stream at Kyushu!

[She evidently sees the place where Obaa-San lives. Her eyes dim a bit and slowly she hums the old lullaby:

See, baby, see,The ears of the wolf are long;Sleep, baby, sleep,Thy father is brave and strong.

Poor Obaa-San!

[The Gaki appears.

THE GAKI

I have lost my way.

[Aoyagi turns quickly, questioning him almost fearfully with her eyes. There is something of the Aoyagi of the time when The Gaki bade her leave Obaa-San.

AOYAGI

Whither are you bound?

THE GAKI

I am a stranger bound for Kyushu.

AOYAGI

There is Kyushu. (She indicates the silver stream)

THE GAKI

I am told there is a ferry on the way to Kyushu.

AOYAGI

Yes,—at Ishiyama.

THE GAKI

At—Ishiyama.

AOYAGI

Why do you speak so?

THE GAKI

I merely echoed your own words.

AOYAGI

I did not say them so terribly.

THE GAKI

What is in your heart came into your voice, perhaps.

AOYAGI

There is the way to Kyushu.

THE GAKI

Down that path?

AOYAGI

Yes. Did you not meet Riki?

THE GAKI

Riki?

AOYAGI

Yes, my august lord.

THE GAKI

I passed no one—except—a tall woman who was climbing slowly and singing a wonderful song—which I had heard once near the ferry at Ishiyama.

AOYAGI

But Riki just left me here. You must have passed him on the way.

THE GAKI

The by-paths are many and the trysting places are secret—like this.

AOYAGI

Riki would take no by-path. My august lord needs no trysting place save this.

THE GAKI

I do not know. I saw no Riki.

AOYAGI

My lord needs no trysting place. I am here. He knows I am here—waiting.

[The Gaki looks at her.

THE GAKI

Riki?

AOYAGI

He knows I am waiting—

THE GAKI

Riki?—Oh, yes the name—I heard it—once—at the ferry at Ishiyama. He has been there.

AOYAGI

Yes.

THE GAKI

A poet?

AOYAGI

Yes.

THE GAKI

He writes wonderful love-songs—they say.

AOYAGI

They?

THE GAKI

Yes,—the people at Ishiyama. I heard one.—It goes—let me see:

"Butterfly, butterfly, alight upon the willow tree—"

AOYAGI

He did not speak that at Ishiyama. He made that for me.

THE GAKI

I heard it, strange to say, at Ishiyama. Perhaps they brought it from—where did you say?

AOYAGI

He made that for me only yesterday.

THE GAKI

And I heard it—yesterday—at Ishiyama. There the wonderful woman was singing. (She looks at him) The one I passed just now.

AOYAGI

That is a mistake.—You are wrong.—I know my—Ah! what is it here—that hurts me, tears me, seems to choke me! Riki!—I am all in all to him—he told me that.—He can not make poems for another.

THE GAKI

I should not have told anything.—Forgive me.—I did not know.—To speak truth is deep in my heart.—I have no gracious subtleties.—I am sorry—

AOYAGI

In the valley there is a mist. I can no longer see the silver stream at Kyushu.—Who are you?—I am afraid!—Riki—Riki—

[There is no answer.

THE GAKI

He does not seem to hear.—I shall go to meet him. He went this way, you say?

AOYAGI

Yes.—There is a mist in the valley and I can not see the silver stream at Kyushu—

[She does not see The Gaki who goes in the direction opposite to the one Aoyagi has indicated.

Oh, the little day—the little day—of love beyond love.—Riki—my mother, Obaa-San.—Yesterday the mountain-top gleamed like the topmost heaven in the spring sunlight. Today—the valley dies in mist and the mountain-top is lost in the sky.

RIKI (coming in singing)

Hai! Hai! Hai!

RIKI

Aoyagi!

AOYAGI

I must go back to Obaa-San, my mother.

RIKI

What has happened, Aoyagi?

AOYAGI

We came up the mountain path side by side, Riki. Without question I gave myself to you.

RIKI

Aoyagi!

AOYAGI

I gave my love—my love beyond love. I believed.

RIKI

Why not believe?

AOYAGI

Your first words were—"You are she!" I did not question. And now—

RIKI

Oh, my little love, was I gone too long?

AOYAGI

My love knows no time, Riki.—You were gone—how can I say?—ages.

RIKI

It was ages, too, to me, Aoyagi.

AOYAGI (softening)

I watched the silver stream at Kyushu—and I waited.

RIKI

What, are those tears?

AOYAGI

Nothing, Riki—but I feel so far away—from Obaa-San.

RIKI

She can bridge the distance with her heart. A mother can always bridge all distance with her heart.