They have scaled the summit of their hate,
The rancour of many months and years.
The way is open to the bourne of their intent.
(They strike.)
They have laid their enemy low.
So when the hour was come
Did these two brothers
By sudden resolution
Destroy their father’s foe.
For valour and piety are their names remembered
Even in this aftertime.
THE ANGEL IN HAGOROMO
Note on Hagoromo.
The story of the mortal who stole an angel’s cloak and so prevented her return to heaven is very widely spread. It exists, with variations and complications, in India, China, Japan, the Liu Chiu Islands and Sweden. The story of Hasan in the Arabian Nights is an elaboration of the same theme.
The Nō play is said to have been written by Seami, but a version of it existed long before. The last half consists merely of chants sung to the dancing. Some of these (e.g. the words to the Suruga Dance) have no relevance to the play, which is chiefly a framework or excuse for the dances. It is thus a Nō of the primitive type, and perhaps belongs, at any rate in its conception, to an earlier period than such unified dramas as Atsumori or Kagekiyo. The words of the dances in Maiguruma are just as irrelevant to the play as those of the Suruga Dance in Hagoromo, but there the plot explains and even demands their intrusion.