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Mutsuo Takahashi's Shinsaku‐noh Samuson: The Japanese Text, an English Translation, and Introduction

2025; Wiley; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/milt.12506

1094-348X

Hiroko Sano,

Themes in Literature Analysis

When Tokyo was chosen as the venue for the Tenth International Milton Symposium (IMS10), as the Symposium organizer I thought it a great opportunity to introduce Japanese culture to the Conference's overseas participants and at the same time to attempt a cultural fusion between the East and the West. As a noh enthusiast, I long believed a noh dramatization of Samson Agonistes could be possible because Milton composed his poem mindful of the style of Greek tragedy which shares several features common to noh. A noh performance of Samson Agonistes thus became one of two central cultural events that would be featured during the week-long Symposium.1 Supporting my idea, the IMS10 organizing committee subsequently commissioned the distinguished poet Mutsuo Takahashi (1937- ) to adapt Samson Agonistes to a noh play and his Shinsaku-noh Samuson / 新作能 散尊 [New Noh Samson] premiered at the National Noh Theatre in Tokyo on 21 August 2012.2 Not only a modern poet but also a writer of noh, kyogen [interlude comedy], and opera, Takahashi had experience staging new noh plays, including Shinsaku-noh Taka-no-i / 新作能 鷹井 [New Noh Hawk's Well] (1990), which was based on W. B. Yeats's one-act play At the Hawk's Well inspired by Japanese noh drama.3 Understanding the significance of his new work being featured during the first IMS taking place outside of Western Europe and North America, Takahashi discussed his intention in notes attached to the originally published version, at a roundtable discussion for the performance booklet, and also in his pre-performance talk.4 The performance, open to public as well as to the participants in the Symposium, had an unusually large audience for a new noh. The seating capacity of the National Noh Theatre (672 seats) approached a sellout. Japanese audiences have long been familiar with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English plays since the nineteenth century. Robun Kanagaki (1829–94), a playwright and journalist, is credited with the first translation of a work of English Literature (Shakespeare's Hamlet) in 1875 which he published as a newspaper serial. In 1886 he translated Hamlet again, but this time in the style of jōruri [a dramatic narrative] used in bunraku [puppetry] and kabuki [drama with music and dance]. He Japanized the characters' names through association with the original sound. Thus Hamlet was adapted as葉武烈土倭錦絵 [Hamlet: A Japanese Painting]. In 1884 Shōyo Tsubouchi (1859–1935), a playwright and novelist, took the same approach toward domestication as Kanagaki in his first translation of Julius Caesar into a Japanese dramatic narrative style entitled自由太刀餘波鋭鋒 [Sword of Freedom: Its Last Sharpness]. The popularity of entertainments such as jōruri and kabuki likely accounts for why those translated works by Kanagaki and Tsubouchi in the Japanese style were readily accepted and why they have continued. Akira Kurosawa (1910–98) directed his accomplished films of Macbeth and King Lear using dramatic practices from the Japanese Warring State Period. Yukio Ninagawa (1935–2016) has produced numerous Shakespeare plays and ancient Greek drama also in the Japanese style (Sano 460-61). Milton's Samson Agonistes performed as a Japanese noh play extends this literary practice. As Gordon Campbell observes, "For Japanese members of the audience, the performance afforded an insight into a seventeenth-century English play; for foreigners in the audience, the play offered a point of familiar access to the richness of Japanese culture" (497). In terms of popular culture, Eric C. Brown notes that "Sano urges various ways to popularize Milton," a vision "partly realized at the 2012 International Milton Symposium in Tokyo when Samson Agonistes was in fact adapted as a Noh play by Mutsuo Takahashi" (10, 337). Why and how were the style of Greek tragedy, Milton's English dramatic poem, and traditional Japanese noh dramaturgy combined in Shinsaku-noh Samuson? In his prefatory material to the first edition of Samson Agonistes (1671), Milton calls attention to Aristotle's definition of tragedy and to the theory of tragic catharsis.5 In his own preface "Of that sort of dramatic poem which is called tragedy," he suggests his models are the three Greek tragic poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Calling his work unconventional—a "dramatic poem" never intended for the stage—Milton suggests Samson Agonistes is static rather than dynamic, presenting, as in Greek drama, its large-scale action of the destruction of the temple of Dagon indirectly through the reporting of the messenger. His servants he [God] with new acquist Of true experience from this great event With peace and consolation hath dismissed, And calm of mind all passion spent. (1755–58) Milton shifts his focus from Samson's heroic exploits told in the biblical Book of Judges to his internal agony on the last day of his life, which gives the poem its title: Samson Agonistes. Throughout the poem, Samson reflects on himself, in contrast to the sparse biblical text. Further, Milton adds the visits by the Danite Chorus and the three characters who visit him in prison and with whom he engages in tense dialogue. Milton also makes a change to the biblical scene in which Samson pulls down the pillars of the temple or the arena. The passage in Judges reads, "Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes" (Judg. 16. 28), whereas the messenger of Samson Agonistes reports that Samson "as one who prayed, / Or some great matter in his mind revolved" (1637–38). It is a crucial question whether Milton justifies Samson's last act or not. Samson Agonistes has provoked various interpretations because of its complicated and enigmatic text, and these have continued to increase in the twenty-first century after the 11 September 2001 event in New York. The uncertainty and the ambiguity of this work demonstrate its multilayered and multicultural potential.6 Milton's text is certainly multivalent, deeply related to history, politics, religion, gender, and other cultural and social concerns. Like his own riddle, Samson's last act is hard to interpret. How Samson endures trials proves more important than how many enemies he killed and what kinds of exploits he achieved. Milton's Samson appears as a man of patience and will and as a man heroically struggling, precisely, "agonistes." All these features evoke associations with Japanese noh. 能 [Noh / Nō], meaning "skill," is a type of drama dating back to the mid-fourteenth century.7 In noh plays, there are only a few personae, mainly shite [the protagonist], waki [the deuteragonist or character second in importance], and tsure [the tritagonist or character third in importance] who is an attendant of the shite or the waki. These characters appear on the apron stage with little props. The Chorus of eight singers sits in two rows off to the right side of the stage. Four players on fué [the flute], ko-tsuzumi [the hand-drum], oh-tsuzumi /ohkawa [the big-drum], and taiko [the stick-drum] sit at the back of the stage. The Chorus narrates and at times takes over and speaks some of the lines of characters. The Chorus of noh sings both recitative and aria, whereas the Chorus of Greek drama clearly keeps its own position, sometimes sympathizing with and sometimes reacting against the protagonist. Thus noh and Greek drama share some approaches to the use of a chorus, songs, stately dances, and masks. Despite such resemblances, however, are essential differences. Apart from the genzai-noh ["actual noh": plays of contemporary characters], most noh plays take the form of the mugen-noh ["dream noh": plays of the dream-like state]. What takes place on the noh stage is in the waki's dream. In the first half of the play, the protagonist, or precisely called mae-jite [the former shite], appears as a ghost in the disguise of a local person before the waki, who is traditionally an itinerant priest. The shite is often accompanied by an attendant called shite-tsure. The shite visits this world in the present from a world in the past, symbolized by hashi-gakari [a bridge-like passageway leading to the left of the apron stage]. The waki asks the stranger who he is and why he has appeared. The protagonist's ghost appears because his soul is still in agony after death due to his guilt in his lifetime. He implores the priest to soothe his agony and calm his soul, and then disappears. In the second half of the play, the protagonist, or more precisely the nochi-jite [the later shite], appears again before the waki in the costume of his lifetime. He represents what happened to him during his lifetime by reciting and dancing. The waki continues to pray for the shite. Being satisfied, even though not completely saved, the shite goes back to that world. Most of these plays are usually called complex mugen-noh consisting of two parts, and classified as the second category of warrior plays called shura-mono/shura-noh. Shura means "a still resentful ghost." They are plays featuring defeated warriors undergoing after-death sufferings eternally and begging priests for prayers to soothe their souls.8 The waki, although a supporting character as the deuteragonist, has a significant role in the mugen-noh. The shite as the ghost speaks to the waki and tells his story in retrospect. The waki not wearing a mask is usually a contemporary of the audience when the play was written but not a contemporary of the shite. This persona of the waki is peculiar to noh. He is an intermediary between the protagonist and the audience. He functions also as a surrogate for the audience. The ghost of the protagonist enters the dreamworld of the deuteragonist, and, through the waki, enters the subconscious of the audience. In this way, human feelings, not particular but universal, are shared among the actors and the audience. Moreover, the waki functions as a spokesperson for the author of a noh play. Innovatively, Takahashi chose Milton for the waki of his Shinsaku-noh Samuson. As Takahashi explains, the presence of waki is one of the most conspicuous differences between noh drama and Greek tragedy. Greek drama insists upon the three unities: a single day, place, and plot. Conversely, the noh play is free from them. The waki is an intermediary between the past and the present, that world and this world. By his presence, the time and the place of the noh play are not strictly limited. Rather, its structure may be understood outside of the limits of time and place. The plot of Shinsaku-noh Samuson, nonetheless, is notably unified and takes place during the Restoration. The audience encounters Milton bemoaning his misfortune in his study in London. Sensing someone approaching him at midnight, he is determined to speak to him. Eventually a blind old man accompanied by an old woman visits Milton at midnight. He tells the blind poet to listen to his story: he was once a judge of his nation that was occupied by a foreign nation. He overcame a lot of enemies with his prodigious strength. But he was caught by enemies, who put out his eyes and imprisoned him. When he was brought out to the court for their festival, he destroyed the temple and killed all the spectators and himself. He says that he is still suffering from such a sin and, in order to solace and soothe his agony, asks the poet to record his story in a poem. He then disappears. In the Interlude, which is usually takes place between the first part and the second part of the complex mugen-noh play, Milton's daughter in the role of ai [interlude] reads Judges 16 at the request of her father. Thus the ai assures the waki of the identity of the shite and helps the audience to understand the entire plot. In the second part of the play, Samson and Delilah make an appearance in the costumes of their youth and state their names. The couple tell their story. Samson resents being deceived by Delilah and asks her why she is persuading him to praise his enemy's god at the festivity. Delilah explains that she wants to live together happily under an amnesty. Samson, in a love-hate relationship with Delilah, tells her to lead him to the court. After making a show of himself before the spectators, he tells her to let him lean on the main pillars of the temple. He prays to his God for his innate power, then pulls down the pillars and destroys the temple. Screams of the crowd including the couple remain over two thousand years. Samson is still grinding on a karmic millstone even after death, and so he asks Milton to record their story in his elaborate words and, by doing so, to soothe their agony. Thus Milton came to write a poem Samson Agonistes as a requiem.9 The noh play is usually a requiem for the dead whoever they may be. Noh intends to calm the souls of all the dead, who are obsessed with mortal life and in agony in the afterlife. This concept is based on Buddhism. On the noh stage, the real persons in history, who would never have met each other in their lifetime, meet after death. The enemies and allies, the conqueror and the conquered, the winner and the defeated share fundamental human feelings: sadness, remorse, agony, and a desire for salvation. These feelings are not only the ghost's, but also within the heart of all humankind. In a structural analysis of Shinsake-noh Samuson, Makiko Shikimachi points out that the first appearance of an okina [old man] and an ouna [old woman] gives dignity as in Takasago10 belonging to the first category of god plays. As soon as the old man tells the story of his life, however, the play turns to the second category of warrior plays. Shikimachi believes that Samson as a chosen and sacred person inherits the essence of god plays and that Samson, as a champion with his extraordinary power, inherits the essence of warrior plays (121-24). It is surprising that Samson and Delilah appear in the plot before Milton. The couple come over from ancient Israel to seventeenth-century London beyond time and place. This great difference in time and place is no wonder, however, in terms of the structure of noh drama, as Takahashi explains in relation to the role of waki. With a deep understanding of the sources of the Book of Judges and Samson Agonistes, as well as noh writing, he fits his Samson story perfectly in the framework of noh, precisely, in the category of warrior plays in the style of complex mugen-noh. Killing is nothing but revenge. Moreover, you destroyed yourself, so it appears justifiable. But hate brings hate by reasons of continued repetition. Revenge brings revenge, and continues over two thousand years. My body destroyed but my sins renewed, I grind on the used millstone human bones instead of wheat, and milk blood. I'm still grinding the millstone of remorse. My story of everlasting agony please record in your elaborate words, and purge away my sins. (70–83) If Samson Agonistes were intended to simply justify Samson's last act, I as a writer of Shinsaku-noh Samuson would object to Milton's idea. To say "as a noh playwright" is not precise. To be more precise, the shite himself confesses that his obsession during his life continuously tortures him even after his death. It is noh itself, not a noh writer, that objects to Milton on such an assumption. Samson the shite and Delilah the shite-tsure might by their names come to symbolize the human urge to repeat blood retribution, and further come to remind us that self-assertion is the core of the inescapable nature of humanity. That is, the shite who belongs to the past and the other world remains permanently in the present tense through his continuous agony. Then, Milton the waki, a historical person who lived in the seventeenth century, also remains permanently in the present tense by listening to Samson the shite. So does the audience always remain in the present tense, those who witness this interaction in the auditorium. Traditional Japanese dramaturgy might be especially apt to convey a powerful sense of cross-cultural universality of Samson Agonistes. Shinsaku-noh Samuson exhibits a stunning fusion of international classical forms and of historical personae: Samson in ancient Israel, Milton in seventeenth-century England, the original audience in modern Japan, and all readers of this issue of Milton Quarterly—"mental travellers," to borrow William Blake's term. Noh is a performing art of requiem for all the dead, including the victims of wars and disasters, regardless of nationality, race, or era.11 Shinsaku-noh Samuson, which Takahashi has adapted in such a highly stylized Japanese art form, casts light on the multivalence of Milton's work in our age of a multicultural world and is a signal instance of East-West cross-cultural interpretation of Milton's dramatic poem. This essay is based on and enlarged from my paper presented at IMS10 on 21 August 2012. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Mutsuo Takahashi and all those who were engaged in the noh performance. J. ミルトン『闘士サムソン』・旧約聖書「士師記」による The Japanese libretto presented in this issue of Milton Quarterly is the most representative version of the author's wishes (2023), based on the originally published version (2011), the printed version in the performance booklet (2012), and the performed version with several modifications (21 August 2012). The Roman letters written above the Japanese verse are phonograms based on the Japanese syllabary. Takahashi's libretto is basically composed of a combination of seven-syllable meter and five-syllable meter, which is the most natural and popular rhythm in Japanese. Libretto by Mutsuo Takahashi (after J. Milton's Samson Agonistes and Judges from the Old Testament) Translated by Hiroko Sano I'm not used to blindness from morning till night, I'm not used to blindness from morning till night; I miss the very days when I had my sight.2 "I'm not used to blindness from morning till night, I'm not used to blindness from morning till night; I miss the very days when I had my sight."3 The Secretary of Foreign Tongues to the Lord Protector, The late Mr. Cromwell, was I, Milton. The Lord Protector Mr. Cromwell was, under divine protection, a veteran of victorious wars.4 [10] After he punished the tyrant and his evil followers, he assiduously devoted himself to the Commonwealth. His long-standing fatigue reaching an extreme point, he took to his bed with a cold, and passed away all of sudden. How forgetful and unreliable is human nature! Hardly had he died when the previous world returned; By order of the new King, his tomb was dug open, his eternal sleep was disturbed, his body was exhumed; he suffered the disgrace of posthumous execution. That was unprecedented and unspeakable, indeed! [20] I, Milton, as a felonious aide of the late Lord Protector, though doomed to mount on the scaffold, was exempted from execution by reason of blindness.5 Deprived of both my position and fortune, I was abandoned among the common people. However, these days there is someone visiting this run-down cottage far from my study, around the time when I am lost in nightly contemplation. He is about to have spoken but does not speak, nor have I dared to ask so far, spending night after night. [30] If he comes again tonight, who he is I am quite determined to ask him. In the meantime, I sense someone pushing the door and walking on the floor. There's no doubt that he has just come. I shall hold my breath6 and wait for him here. Taking advantage of midnight darkness, taking advantage of midnight darkness, "Taking advantage of midnight darkness, taking advantage of midnight darkness, [40] beyond over two thousand years," What are you who make nightly visits? Why do you slip into this shack in secret? What! The old man as blind as I, and the old woman taking his hand! [50] For what purpose do you visit this shack? Sharing blindness with you, I came to tell you about my distressful story. Because not you but I spoke to you tonight, please speak without reserve. Then I shall speak about my story. I used to govern the people of a nation, which the enemies of a foreign country suddenly [60] invaded, and occupied long since then. Nevertheless, with my innate strength, I often fell those enemies. Yet their lords deceived and caught me, put out my eyes, and made me grind on a millstone with cattle. Eventually they brought me forth to the court of their feast to make fun of me as an entertainment. Then I came to unleash my anger, and killed all the people there and myself.7 Killing is nothing but revenge. [70] Moreover, you destroyed yourself, so it appears justifiable. But hate brings hate, by reasons of continued repetition. Revenge brings revenge, and continues over two thousand years. My body destroyed but my sins renewed, I grind on the used millstone human bones instead of wheat, and milk blood. I'm still grinding the millstone of remorse. [80] My story of everlasting agony please record in your elaborate words, and purge away my sins. So saying, has disappeared the blind old man accompanied with the old woman, who has also disappeared. How strange! Those who have been here and talked with me, the old man and the old woman, disappeared suddenly, surrounding me with the silence of midnight darkness. [90] Well, my daughter! Are you nearby? Help me, this blind man. Certainly. To support my blind father in your everyday life, I always should be nearby; yet in the middle of the night, I dozed off inadvertently. Those who have been here and talked with me, the old man and the old woman, [100] must have appeared to your eyes. No, although I am nearby, what appears to my eyes is only Father and midnight darkness around you. We exchanged words, so our voices must have been heard. You mean your voices and words, but they have never reached my ears. It is true, indeed, that the unsighted see and the sighted don't. Anyway, the couple reminds me of some people. [110] Then, read the sixteenth chapter of Judges in the Old Testament for me. At your bidding I shall take and skip through the sixteenth chapter of Judges in the Old Testament. ―And it came to pass afterward, that Samson loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, [120] that we may bind him to afflict him and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightiest be bound to afflict thee. ―And she said unto Samson, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, [130] and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. ―And she made him sleep upon her knees: and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, [140] and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. What a shame! Here we are again, led by the voice reading the sixteenth chapter of Judges. Exactly, you are the old man and the old woman who disappeared before, as we've supposed. "Now forsaken by God and the people, and held in the prison house, I am grinding on a karmic millstone." Glory to heaven, glory to earth! This day is a feast to the God of Dagon, our Lord. Listen to the message especially issued on this occasion. You, our convict and captive. [160] Now we shall remove a yoke and fetters from you, so you should come out to the court of our feast; With your head whose hair is shaven off, and with your orbits whence eyes are put out, you should give praises unto our God. As a reward we shall release you from the prison house; to live happily with your beloved woman forever we shall allow you; we announce this SamsonThose who deceived me put out my eyes, You should bear a single day, but could live happily with me forever; My dearest, I persuade you, taking your hand. If you had truly loved me, Why did you have my hallowed hair shaven? I still have a doubt about you, yet I am going to the court of the feast now. You told me to take your hand and lead you. How delighted and pleased I am! The man is led by the woman, the woman takes his hand; now are they on the court of the feast. The sun shines the arena [190] whose court is surrounded by seats in rows, each of which is filled with the crowd. To have a look at the blind captive, hundreds and thousands of people have gathered. The mighty champion, strong above compare, is now tottering with his eyes put out. "Behold that poor blind man," pointing at him, nodding and poking each other, the crowd laugh out loud. So saying, he tugs two pillars; hereby all the pillars thunder, row upon row of seats fall down. The crowd in a panic give shrieks in agony and sobs with blood. The world seems to come to an end. In that outcry are his own voice and the voice of the woman he loved and hated, [210] which mix and last over two thousand years. "Pressing, crushing, grating not barley, wheat, and millet, but gory bones and flesh in revenge for hate and grudge. In the flesh and blood are my own and the woman's whom I loved and hated; All mingle together to let loose an unbearable stink. and at least soothe our agony even if you cannot save us." The midnight darkness is breaking into a dawn; The two have disappeared in the first light of the day; they have disappeared, leaving their voices behind.