BENKEI.
If this is as you say, I will not go to-night; and yet ... No. It is not to be thought of that such a one as Benkei should be affrighted by a tale. To-night when it is dark I will go to the bridge and humble this arrogant elf.
CHORUS.
And while he spoke,
Evening already to the western sky had come;
Soon the night-wind had shattered and dispersed
The shapes of sunset. Cheerless night
Came swiftly, but with step too slow
For him who waits.
(A Comic interlude played by a bow-master is sometimes used here to fill in the time while BENKEI is arming himself.)
USHIWAKA.
I am Ushiwaka. I must do as my mother told me; “Go up to the Temple[62] at daybreak,” she said. But it is still night. I will go to Gojō Bridge and wait there till suddenly
Moonlight mingles with the rising waves;
No twilight closes
The autumn day, but swiftly
The winds of night bring darkness.
CHORUS (speaking for USHIWAKA).
Oh! beauty of the waves! High beats my heart,
High as their scattered pearls!
Waves white as dewy calabash[63] at dawn,
By Gojō Bridge.
Silently the night passes,
No sound but my own feet upon the wooden planks
Clanking and clanking; still I wait
And still in vain.