O honoured! do not awake me by force.
I see that the law is perfect.

SHITE (supposedly invisible)
It is a good service you have done, sir,
A service that spreads in two worlds,
And binds up an ancient love
That was stretched out between them.
I had watched for a thousand days.
Take my thanks,
For this meeting is under a difficult law.
And now I will show myself in the form of Nishikigi.
I will come out now for the first time in colour.
(The characters announce or explain their acts, as these are mostly
symbolical. Thus here the Shite, or Sh'te, announces his change of
costume, and later the dance.)

CHORUS
The three years are over and past:
All that is but an old story.

SHITE
To dream under dream we return.
Three years.... And the meeting comes now!
This night has happened over and over,
And only now comes the tryst.

CHORUS
Look there to the cave
Beneath the stems of the Suzuki.