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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 following: 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 +
