Page:Japanese Literature (Keene).pdf/68

56 drama. The quiet scenes are in prose which must have been very close to the colloquial of the time, but the poetry of the sung parts is of extraordinary complexity and difficulty. It abounds in allusions and puns, and especially in the kakekotoba or “pivot-words” already discussed above. As an example of the poetry of a Nō play, we may consider a short passage from Matsukaze, written by Kanami and revised by Seami. This is the story of two fisher-girls, Matsukaze and Mutasame, who long ago in the past were befriended by a nobleman banished to their lonely shore. In the first part of the play a travelling priest asks shelter at their house after seeing them dip water from the sea. He discovers their identities, and, in the second part, Matsukaze, the chief dancer, appearing in the hunting-cloak left behind by the nobleman, enacts their story. During one part of her dance the chorus recites for her:

This passage depends for its full effect on the recognition of an allusion and on a “pivot-word”. The allusion is to a poem in the Collection of Ancient and Modern Poetry of 905 :