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