OBAA-SAN

A dream!

AOYAGI

Mother--

[_Obaa-San stands mute. She listens--yearning for the word again._

OBAA-SAN

Have you lost your way?

AOYAGI

No, mother--

[_Obaa-San does not know what to think or do. A strange giddiness seizes on her and a great light fills her eyes._

OBAA-SAN

How beautiful the name! But I am only Obaa-San. Your mother--

[_She shakes her old head sadly._

AOYAGI

Obaa-San, my mother.

[_Obaa-San lays her hand upon her heart. Then she stretches out her arms._

OBAA-SAN

Obaa-San--your mother--where is my pain? And you--who are you?

AOYAGI

I am Aoyagi, mother.

OBAA-SAN

You have not lost your way?

AOYAGI

I have but just found my way.

OBAA-SAN

My pain is stilled. There is no emptiness. It is a dream--a dream of spring and b.u.t.terflies--Aoyagi!

[_She stretches out her arms and silently Aoyagi glides into them--as though they had always been waiting for her._

OBAA-SAN

I seem never to have known a time when you were not here.

AOYAGI

Oh, mother dear, it is now--and now is always, if we will.

OBAA-SAN

It seems as though the weeping willow tree had warmed and shown its heart to me.

AOYAGI

I am the Lady of the Weeping Willow tree!

OBAA-SAN

I care not who or what you are. You are here--close to my heart and I have waited always. I know I dream--I know.

AOYAGI

How long I've tried to speak to you!

OBAA-SAN

How long my heart has yearned for you!

AOYAGI

Mother!

[_The Gaki appears._

THE GAKI

Such happiness. Already she has forgotten the coming of the man.

OBAA-SAN

Oh, how I've dreamed of you! When I was very, very young and had my little doll, I dreamed of you. I used to sing a lullaby and still I sing it in my heart:

See, baby, see The ears of the wolf are long; Sleep, baby, sleep, Your father is brave and strong.

I grew into womanhood and still I dreamed of you. And, dreaming still, I grew old. And all the world it seemed to me, made sport of my longing and my loneliness. The people of the village called me grandmother. The children echoed the grownups' cry and ran from me. Now--Aoyagi--you are here. Oh, the warmth--the peace. Come let me gather flowers for the house.