He looks around in great surprise,
And, lo, a parrot meets his eyes.
It was his wife that taught the bird
To speak the tender words he heard.”
Recitative. Yuranosuke
looks around and, by the light of the hanging lantern, he reads Lady Kaoyo’s letter which tells in detail the enemy’s condition. Being a woman’s
letter with many redundant phrases he cannot read it quickly. Thinking with envy that it is a letter from some loved woman, Okaru looks down; but she cannot distinguish the characters in the dim light. She thinks of her metal mirror; and bringing it out, she reads the letter by its reflection. Little dreams Yuranosuke, being no god, that under the verandah Kudayu is reading the same letter by the moonlight as it unrolls and hangs down. Okaru’s hair-pin comes loose and falls on the ground. At the sound Yuranosuke looks up and hides the letter behind him; under the verandah Kudayu is still in smiles; and on the upper floor Okaru conceals her mirror.
Okaru. Is it you, Master Yura?