Oh, endless days of banishment!
How long shall I languish in this place,
Where the time while a mountain dewdrop dries
Seems longer than a thousand years?
A spring has gone; summer grown to age;
An autumn closed; a winter come again,
Marked only by the changing forms
Of flowers and trees.
Oh, longed-for time of old!
Oh, recollection sweet whithersoever
The mind travels; City streets and cloisters now
Seem Edens[204] garlanded
With every flower of Spring.
Suddenly a boat appears carrying a stranger to the shore. This is represented on the stage by an attendant carrying the conventionalized Nō play “boat” on to the hashi gakari. The envoy, whose departure from the Capital forms the opening scene of the play—I have omitted it in my summary—has been standing by the “Waki’s pillar.” He now steps into the boat and announces that a following wind is carrying him swiftly over the sea. He leaves the boat, carrying a Proclamation in his hand.
ENVOY.
I bring an Act of Amnesty from the City.
Here, read it for yourselves.
SHUNKWAN (snatching the scroll).
Look, Yasuyori! Look! At last!
YASUYORI (reading the scroll).
What is this? What is this?
“Because of the pregnancy of Her Majesty the Empress, an amnesty is proclaimed throughout the land. All exiles are recalled from banishment, and, of those exiled on Devil’s Island, to these two Naritsune, Lieutenant of Tamba and Yasuyori of the Taira clan, free pardon is granted.”
SHUNKWAN.