FIRST CUSTOMER: The scarlet collars. . . .
SECOND B0AT-W0MAN: Are wrapped around our waists. . . . (She lifts
the hem of her kimono and displays her legs.)
SECOND CUSTOMER: Boat-women are. . . .
Pillowed on the waves rocking in a small boat lovely and swaying.
FIRST CUSTOMER: Out on the sea, in this snow?
Snow does not grow deeper on the sea only the thoughts of women grow
deeper.
FIRST CUSTOMER: Perhaps to see the cypress-wood fans . . . .
SECOND BOAT-WOMAN: Let’s go to the boat—it’s that one, that boat
there.
SECOND CUSTOMER: Oh, it’s cold. (He looks at the boat and shivers.)
FIRST BOAT-WOMAN: Shall we warm you with our snow-white skin?
SECOND CUSTOMER: Snow-white skin, did you say?
It looks like goose-flesh to me, like the skin of a shark come up from the
sea. I was amazed when I heard that Heike women had become prostitutes
—what a story. . . .
FIRST customer: This ugly-faced Heike crab, this spider-prostitute . . . .
SECOND boat-woman: Weren’t the Heike pinched the way a Heike crab
pinches?
FIRST boat-woman: Weren’t the Heike embraced the way a spider-
prostitute embraces?
CUSTOMER I, 2: Oh! How frightening!
The fish climb the wind blows striking the bucket-drum striking the
bucket-drum how I wish it would clear how I wish it would clear.
