Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... NISHIKIGI1 A Play in two Acts, by Motokiyo Characters The-waki, a priest. The Shite, or Hero, ghost of the lover. Tsure, ghost of the woman; they have both been long dead, and have not yet been united. A Chorus. PART FIRST Waki There never was anybody heard of Mt. Shinobu but had a kindly feeling for it; so I, like any other priest that might want to know a little bit about each one of the provinces, may as well be walking up here along the much-travelled road. I have not yet been about the east country, but now I have set my mind to go as far as the earth goes, and why shouldn't I, after all? seeing that I go about with my heart set upon no particular place whatsoever, and with no other man's flag in my hand, no more than a cloud has. It is a flag of the night I see coming down upon me. I wonder now, would the sea be that way, or the little place Kefu that they say is stuck down against it. 1 The " Nishikigi " are wands used as a love-charm. "Hosonuno " is the name of a local cloth which the woman weaves. Shite And Tsure Times out of mind am I here setting up this bright branch, this silky wood with the charms painted in it as fine as the web you'd get in the grass-cloth of Shinobu, that they'd be still selling you in this mountain. Shite (to Tsure) Tangled, we are entangled. Whose fault was it, dear? tangled up as the grass patterns are tangled in this coarse cloth, or as the little Mushi that lives on and chirrups in dried seaweed. We do not know where are to-day 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 r this thinking in sleep of some one who has no thought of you, is it more than a dream?...
