Reconstructed Script

The Spider's Thread

Ryunosuke Akutagawa

BUDDHA: One day, the Buddha was strolling along on the brink of the lotus pond of Paradise. The
lotus flowers in bloom in the pond were all as white as pearls, and the golden pistils and
stamens in their centers ceaselessly filled all the air with ineffable fragrance. It was
morning in Paradise. Presently, the Buddha stood still on the brink of the pond, and
through an opening among the leaves which covered the face of the water, suddenly
beheld the scene below.

NARRATOR. As the floor of hell lay directly beneath the lotus pond of Paradise, the River of the
Three fold Path to eternal darkness and the piercing peaks of the Needle Mountain were
distinctly visible through the crystal water, as through a stereopticon.

BUDDHA. Then his. eye fell on a man named Kandata, who was squirming with the other sinners in the
bottom of Hell.

NARRATOR. This Kandata was a great robber who had done many evil things, murdering, and setting
fire to houses, but he had to his credit one good action. Once while on his way through a
deep forest, he had noticed a little spider creeping along beside the road:

So quickly lifting his foot, he was about to trample it to death, when he suddenly
thought: "No, no, as small as this thing is, it too has a soul. It would be rather a shame to
kill it inconsiderately," and he spared the spider's life.

BUDDHA. As he looked down into Hell, the Buddha remembered how. this Kandata had spared the
spider’s life. And in return for that good deed, he thought, if possible he would like to
deliver him out of Hell. Fortunately, when he looked around, he saw a spider of Paradise
spinning a beautiful silvery thread on the lotus leaves.

The Buddha quietly took up the spider's thread in his hand. And he let it fall straight
down to the bottom
 of Hell far below through the opening among the pearly-white lotus flowers.

ACT II

KANDATA. Here Kandata had been rising and sinking with the other sinner in the pool of Blood on
the floor of Hell.

NARRATOR. It was pitch black everywhere, and when at times a glimpse was caught of something
rising from that darkness, it turned out to be the gleam of the peaks of the dreaded
Needle Mountain. The stillness of the grave reigned everywhere, and the only thing that
could be heard now and then was the faint sighing of the sinners. This was because such
sinners as had come down to this spot had already been worn out by the other manifold
tortures of Hell and had lost even the strength to cry aloud.

KANDATA. So, great robber though he was, Kandata, choking with the blood, could do nothing but
struggle in the pool like a dying frog.

NARRATOR. But his time came. On this day, Kandata lifted his head by chance and looked up at the
sky above the Pool of Blood.

KANDATA. He saw a silver spider's thread slipping down toward him from the high, high heavens,
glittering slightly in the silent darkness just as if it feared the eyes of man.

When he saw this, his hands clapped themselves for joy. If, clinging to this thread, he
climbed as far as it went, he could surely escape from Hell. Nay, if all went well, he
might even enter Paradise. Then he would never be driven on to the Needle Mountain
or sunk in the Pool of Blood KANDATA. As soon as these thoughts came into his mind, he
grasped the thread tightly in his two hands and began to climb up and up with all his
might. Because he was a great robber, he had long been thoroughly familiar with such
things.
Narrator: But Hell is nobody knows how many myriads of miles removed from Paradise, and strive
as he might the Pool of Blood where he had just been being already, much to his
surprise, hidden deep down in darkness. And the dreaded Needle Mountain glittered
dimly under him. If he went up at this rate, he might get out of Hell more easily than he
had. thought.

With his hand twisted into the spider's thread, Kandata laughed and exulted in a voice
such as he had not uttered during all the years since coming here: “Success! Success!"

NARRATOR But suddenly he noticed that below on the thread, count- less sinners were climbing
eagerly after him, up and up, like a procession of ants.

KANDATA. When he saw this, Kandata simply blinked his eye for a moment, with his big mouth
hanging foolishly open in surprise and terror.

NARRATOR. How could that slender spider's thread, which seemed as if it must break even with him
alone, ever support the weight of all those people?

KANDATA If it should break in midair, even he himself, after all his effort in reaching this spot,
would have to fall headlong back into Hell.

But meanwhile, hundreds and thousands of sinners were squirming out of the dark Pool
of Blood and climbing with all their might in a line up the slender glittering thread. If he
did not do something quickly, the thread was sure to break in two and fall. So Karl data
cried out in a loud voice: 1

"Hey, you sinners! This spider's thread is mine. Who gave you per- mission to come up?
Get down! Get down!"

NARRATOR. Just at that moment, the spider's thread, which had shown no sign of breaking up to
that time, suddenly broke with a snap at the point where Kandata was hanging. Without
even time to utter a cry, he shot down and fell headlong into the darkness, spinning
swiftly around and around like a top.
 Afterward, only the spider’s thread of Paradise, glittering and slender, hung short in the
moonless and starless sky.

BUDDHA. Standing on the brink · of the. ·lotus pond of Paradise, Buddha had watched closely all
that had happened, and when Kanata sank like a stone-at the bottom of the Pool of
Blood, he began to walk again with a sad expression on his face

NARRATOR: Doubtless Kandata's cold heart that would have saved only himself, and his fall back
into hell, had appeared to Buddha’s eyes most pitiful. But the lotuses in the lotus pond
of Paradise cared nothing at all about such things. The pearly-white flowers were
swaying about the Buddha’s feet. As they swayed from the golden pistils in their
centers, their ineffable fragrance ceaselessly filled all tile air.

It was near noon in Paradise.