Atsumori
by Seami Motokiyo
This play is based on an episode in “The Tale of the Heike,” which appears on page 179.
- •
Persons
- The Priest Rensei (formerly the warrior Kumagai)
- A Young Reaper, who turns out to be the ghost of Atsumori
- His Companion
- Chorus
Priest: Life is a lying dream, he only wakes
Who casts the world aside.
I am Kumagai no Naozane, a man of the country of Musashi. I have left my home and call myself the priest Rensei; this I have done because of my grief at the death of Atsumori, who fell in battle by my hand. Hence it comes that I am dressed in priestly guise.
And now I am going down to Ichi no tani to pray for the salvation of Atsumori’s soul.
- (He walks slowly across the stage, singing a song descriptive of his journey.)
I have come so fast that here I am already at Ichi no tani, in the country of Tsu.
Truly the past returns to my mind as though it were a thing of today.
But listen! I hear the sound of a flute coming from a knoll of rising ground. I will wait here till the flute-player passes, and ask him to tell me the story of this place.
