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JOHANNA DOMOKOS
involves supernatural worlds, featuring gods, spirits, ghosts, or phantasms in
the shite role. Similar to the role of a shite, a human being in the role — called
the waki — also appears.
Regarding the typical storyline of a yagen Noh play Okura states the fol¬
lowing:
In the opening act of a yagen Noh play, a person, who lives in this world, appears. He
is on his way somewhere and is often a Buddhist monk. To start off, he says where
he is going and what stories he has heard about that place. Then the protagonist
comes to the scene, and they meet each other. The protagonist of the play is the
soul of a deceased local person disguised as a living man, who now comes to visit
this world. Then this ghost begins to recall the past. He talks about this and that
to the monk, who in a way is a representative of the local people. After a while the
monk falls asleep. The second half of the play features the main character almost
entirely alone, namely the ghost from the other world. Usually, he dances in very
slow, stylized movements while the chorus accompanies him. This chorus tells
stories about the main character and also about his mood. At the end of the play,
the representative of the other world leaves, while the human character wakes up
from sleep and wonders whether the dream was true or not.”
Indeed, this is the overarching structure of both Okura’s and Valkeapai’s texts.
In Okura’s piece the transcendental protagonist, referred to as shite in the play,
appears to the wandering reindeer herder, referred to as waki. Drinking from
a clean local spring after a day’s walk, the reindeer herder looks around for a
place to rest. The shite incites him to yoik together, and after yoiking the shite
disappears and the waki falls asleep.
In the second part of the play, the shite dances as the chorus recites poems
from Valkeapää’s award winning and much translated poetry/photo book,
Beaivi, AhédZan, published in 1989". These poems are about the circle of life
that affects nature, individuals, and entire peoples. One of the quoted poems
(no. 559) translates in the following way:
Anda part of life is that the old ones leave
Make room for the new life
Humans come and go
People are born, disappear
That is how the ocean of life sighs
The waves
Wave after wave
1 Okura: Ibid., 366. trans. Johanna Domokos.
1 Valkeapaa: Beaivi, 1989, unnumbered pages.
.76 +