Strange, what seemed so very old a cave Is all glittering-bright within, Like the flicker of fire. It is like the inside of a house. They are setting up a loom, And heaping up charm-sticks. No, The hangings are out of old time. Is it illusion, illusion? TSURE Our hearts have been in the dark of the falling snow, We have been astray in the flurry. You should tell better than we How much is illusion; You who are in the world. We have been in the whirl of those who are fading. SHITE Indeed in old times Narihira said, --and he has vanished with the years-- 'Let a man who is in the world tell the fact.' It is for you, traveller, To say how much is illusion. WAKI Let it be a dream, or a vision, Or what you will, I care not. Only show me the old times over-past and snowed under-- Now, soon, while the night lasts. SHITE Look then, the old times are shown, Faint as the shadow-flower shows in the grass that bears it; And you've but a moon for lanthorn. TSURE The woman has gone into the cave. She sets up her loom there For the weaving of Hosonuno, Thin as the heart of Autumn. SHITE The suitor for his part, holding his charm-sticks, Knocks on a gate which was barred. TSURE In old time he got back no answer, No secret sound at all Save.... SHITE The sound of the loom. TSURE It was a sweet sound like katydids and crickets, A thin sound like the Autumn. SHITE It was what you would hear any night. TSURE Kiri. SHITE Hatari. TSURE Cho. SHITE Cho. CHORUS (mimicking the sound of crickets) Kiri, hatari, cho, cho, Kiri, hatari, cho, cho. The cricket sews on at his old rags, With all the new grass in the field; sho, Churr, isho, like the whir of a loom: churr. CHORUS (antistrophe) Let be, they make grass-cloth in Kefu, Kefu, the land's end, matchless in the world. SHITE That is an old custom, truly, But this priest would look on the past. CHORUS The good priest himself would say: Even if we weave the cloth, Hosonuno, And set up the charm-sticks For a thousand, a hundred nights, Even then our beautiful desire will not pass, Nor fade nor die out. SHITE Even to-day the difficulty of our meeting is remembered, And is remembered in song. CHORUS