Recitative monologue (Act 21) — Chushingura; Or, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers

Yuranosuke gives the first blow with his sword; and his forty and more comrades shout and rejoice as might the blind tortoise when it falls in with a floating log or as if they had seen the flower of the _udonge_ which blooms but once in three thousand years; they leap and dance in the fulness of their joy. The head is cut off with the dirk that their lord left behind. They rejoice and dance, for it was to see this one head that they forsook their wives, parted from their children, and lost their parents. What an auspicious day is to-day! They beat the head and bite at it; they all weep with joy. It is too natural, and becomes saddening to see. Yuranosuke takes out of his bosom his dead lord’s tablet and places it on a table in the alcove; he washes the head of its blood-stains and offers it before the tablet; and then he burns incense which he has brought in his helmet. He shuffles back and bows three times, nay, nine times to the tablet.