FIRST SAMURAI: Hey, hey. Play your flute for us. Sing for us. If you
dance well we’ll let you be a priestess at the shrine.
MURASAKI: Will you really?
FIRST SAMURAI: Go on, hurry up and dance.
Murasaki dances.
Still I chance to meet the joy of this day the sadness of this day yesterday
a dream tomorrow an illusion today in reality here on my lap.
People from the festival appear one by one as she sings. They watch.
The samurai mimic Murasaki as she dances.
FIRST SAMURAI: Yeah, you said it—in reality here on my lap.
MUARASAKI: Will you let me be a priestess here?
SECOND WOMAN: That song on the biwa, earlier...
THIRD WOMAN: This one was just like it...
MURASAKI: What? What do you mean, a biwa song just like it...
FOURTH W0MAN: A song a traveler sang earlier.
MURASAKI: That traveler...What kind of person was he? Which way
did he go?
WOMAN I, 5, 6: He went that way just a moment ago.
Murasaki heads hurriedly in that direction.
Looking out over the mountain scenery more beautiful than I had heard
Itsukushima.
Murasaki hurries on as this verse is sung, until a samurai calls out to her.
FIRST SAMURAI: It was this way—if you’re looking for the traveler,
go this way.
