SECOND SAMURAI: Long ago a priestess from Itsukushima was
summoned to the Capital, and at Lord Kiyomori’s mansion...
THIRD SAMURAI: She was so lovely she was permitted to dance even
in the presence of the Cloistered Emperor Goshirakawa.
SECOND SAMURAI: The bugaku today was dedicated to the gods by
Lord Yoritomo...
THIRD SAMURAI: He’s going off to fight Yoshitsune in Osho, he prays
that he’ll win the battle...
They draw nearer to Kagekiyo, and speak suspiciously.
FIRST SAMURAI: Well, Well—a biwa-hoshi.
SECOND SAMURAI: Why would a biwa-hoshi be off by himself, sunk
deep in thought? Vulgar, isn’t it— that ferocious expression...
THIRD SAMURAI: A suspicious man... is he a Genji or a Heike?
KAGEKIYO: I cannot see the Genji world...
THIRD SAMURAI: What?
KAGEKIYO: You’ll notice that I’m blind.
SECOND SAMURAI: What can’t you see—say that once more?
KAGEKIYO: I do not listen to the thing they call the Genji biwa.
During this exchange some of the people from the festival come across
the corridor from the other side, appearing one at a time, and surround
Kagekiyo and the samurai.
FIRST MAN: Why, it’s a Genji interrogation. people: An interrogation,
an interrogation!
FIRST WOMAN: They arrest a blind biwa-hashi…. SECOND MAN:
He said he hasn’t got a Genji biwa.
