BROTHER.
“In motion, a wind;
In stillness, a bright moon.”
And even as in this one substance
Both wind and moon inhere,
So Thought alone is Truth, and from the mind
Spring all component things.
Such is the sermon of the fan, as a sign we bear it
Of the heart’s omnipotence. It is an emblem
Fools only would decry!
NOBUTOSHI.
The fan indeed teaches an agreeable lesson; but one of you carries a bow and arrow at his side. Are these too reckoned fit gear for men of your profession?
MAKINO.
The bow? Why, surely!
Are not its two horns fashioned
In likeness of the Hare and Crow,
Symbols of the Moon and Sun, of Night and Day?
Here is the primal mystery displayed
Of fair and foul conjoined.[161]
Bears not the God of Love, unsullied king,
A magical bow? Does he not stretch upon its string
Arrows of grace whereby
The armies of the Four Fiends[162] know no rest
CHORUS.
And thus we two are armed,
For though the bow be not bent nor the arrow loosed,
Yet falls the prey unmasked.
(MAKINO draws his bow as though about to shoot; his BROTHER checks him with his staff.)
So says the song. Now speak no more
Of things you know not of.