More Portmanteau Plays Part 10

AOYAGI

But--Obaa-San--is very old and very lonely.

RIKI

She is your mother.--She must be glad to let you go.

AOYAGI

She does not know you.

RIKI

I know you.

AOYAGI

Yes--but I can not leave Obaa-San.

RIKI

We can not stay with Obaa-San.

AOYAGI

Can we not take her with us?

RIKI

No--like the Os.h.i.+dori--we can go only by two and two along the silent stream--and as Os.h.i.+dori in silence and in happiness float on and on and seem to cleave the mirrored sky that lies deep within the dark waters, so we must go, we two, just you and I, to some silent place where only you and I may be--and look and look until we see the thousand years of love in each other's hearts.

AOYAGI

Something speaks to me above the pity for poor Obaa-San.

RIKI

It is love.

AOYAGI

I love Obaa-San.

RIKI

This is love beyond love. This is earth and air--sea and sky.

AOYAGI

I do not even know your name.

RIKI

What does my name matter? I am I--you are you.

AOYAGI

I love Obaa-San, my mother.--I feel happy in her arms;--I felt at peace;--but now I feel that I must go to you.--I am fearful--yet I must go.--You are--

RIKI

I am Riki. But what can Riki mean that already my eyes have not said?

AOYAGI

I feel a strange unrest--that is happiness.

RIKI

Come!

AOYAGI

First let me speak to Obaa-San.

RIKI

Look--out there--a mountain gleaming in the fresh spring air.--Amongst the trees I know a glade that waits for you and me.--A little stream comes plas.h.i.+ng by and silver fishes leap from pool to pool--dazzling jewels in the leaf-broken sunlight. Tall bamboo trees planted deep in the father earth reach up to the sky.--And there the hand of some great G.o.d can reach down to us and feed our happiness--

AOYAGI

Riki--I must go--I feel the strong hand leading me--I feel the happy pain--I long--I would stay with Obaa-San; but, Riki, I must go.--Yon mountain gleaming in the sun--the bamboo trees--the silver fishes--you--

[_Obaa-San enters carrying an armful of wistaria blossoms. She is radiant.

Then--she sees the lovers--and she understands. The blossoms slip from her arms._

OBAA-SAN

When do you go?

AOYAGI

Obaa-San, my mother--something outside of me calls and I must obey.

OBAA-SAN

I understand.--It must be wonderful, my little daughter.

AOYAGI