Most Western writings on noh have been concerned with that category known as "mugenno," visional noh -- highly poetic, spiritually infused. Since this interest has come to characterize noh in general, other categories have been neglected.
A consequence is, as Mae Smethurst argues in this book, that generalizations have been made "that were not representative of the whole repertory, but rather of the unique features of part of that repertory."
To redress the situation, she has translated and commented upon five plays from other categories. These are "Shuen'ei," the play perhaps most like the mugenno, "Dampu," a plotted play, "Shichikoichi," a play -- like the others, about filial devotion -- that ends with a reunion, "Nakamitsu," about the separation of father and son, and "Nishikido," about the dissolution of the entire family.
In order to position the Western reader, Smethurst goes into detail concerning the Greek drama and noh, similarities between which have been often noted. Here she demonstrates that Aristotelian theory can accommodate even these more formally plotted noh, and that the two dramaturgies are not as far apart as might be thought.
The translations themselves are sound and readable, itself an achievement. Noh texts are by their nature difficult and the translator must make decisions all along the way. There are various "original" versions (sometimes one for each of the noh schools) and the text itself is sometimes a collage of references and quotations. As Karen Brazell has noted, "Images and allusions are strung together with repetitions, puns and other types of word play."
She adds that "the translator into English is forced to make distinctions and supply details not provided in the original. Clearly then, two translations of a single play might be quite different and yet both be 'accurate.' "
Recent noh scholarship has consequently come to treat noh as more than a simple text. Ideally, each line would have a footnote telling where it came from, and since this dramatic form is (Brazell again) "a system of highly conventionalized interlocking parts," some indication of music and choreography is also necessary. This is what is done in the 1955 "Japanese Noh Drama" published by the Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai, and what Brazell does in her 1997 "Traditional Japanese Theater."
Also, translators do not necessarily have the same goals and thus employ different English styles in their translations. Don Kenny, for example, translates "kyogen" for English production and so emphasizes the formulaic and archaic aspects of the script; Royall Tyler uses modern, colloquial language to emphasize the humorous aspects of these plays. Both Monica Bethe and James Brandon give detailed information about musical forms; Samuel Leiter and Carolyn Morley pay particular attention to acting styles.
The older translations vary in intent and effect. Arthur Waley, who left whole sections out of his translations of Sei Shonagon and the Lady Murasaki, in his noh translations cuts the "ai-kyogen" sections with the somewhat specious note that "the interludes are subject to variation and are not considered part of the literary text of the play." And as for Ezra Pound, who used Fenollosa's fragmentary notes, the result is interesting, not because it is noh, but because it is Pound.
Indeed, one does not ordinarily read noh drama the way one reads, say, Shakespeare. There, the printed page suffices -- one is reading literature, no matter how one defines the term. With the noh one is mostly reading libretti. As Brazell says, "The scripts of Japanese traditional theater are not solely or even primarily concerned with reproducing ordinary dialogue."
With exceptions -- and among these would be the "sewamono" in the kabuki and such categories of noh to which Smethurst has devoted her attention. In so doing, she has indicated a neglected repertoire and has enlarged the Western concept of noh itself.
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