Strange, what seemed so very old a cave
Is all glittering-bright within,
Like the flicker of fire.
It is like the inside of a house.
They are setting up a loom,
And heaping up charm-sticks. No,
The hangings are out of old time.
Is it illusion, illusion?
TSURE
Our hearts have been in the dark of the falling snow,
We have been astray in the flurry.
You should tell better than we
How much is illusion;
You who are in the world.
We have been in the whirl of those who are fading.
SHITE
Indeed in old times Narihira said,
—and he has vanished with the years—
'Let a man who is in the world tell the fact.'
It is for you, traveller,
To say how much is illusion.
WAKI
Let it be a dream, or a vision,
Or what you will, I care not.
Only show me the old times over-past and snowed under—
Now, soon, while the night lasts.
SHITE
Look then, the old times are shown,
Faint as the shadow-flower shows in the grass that bears it;
And you've but a moon for lanthorn.
TSURE