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ゆく河の流れは絶えずして、しかも、もとの水にあらず。淀みに浮かぶうたかたは、かつ消えかつ結びて、久しくとゞまりたる例なし。世中にある人と栖と、またかくのごとし。

たましきのみやこのうちに、棟を並べ、甍を争へる、高き、いやしき、人の住居は、世々を経て尽きせぬものなれど、これをまことかと尋ぬれば、昔ありし家はまれなり。或は去年焼けて今年作れり。或は大家亡びて小家となる。住む人もこれに同じ。所も変わらず、ひとも多かれど、いにしへ見し人は、二三十人が中に、わずかにひとりふたりなり。

朝に死に、夕に生るゝならひ、たゞ水の泡にぞ似たりける。不知、生まれ死ぬる人、何方より來たりて、何方へか去る。また不知、仮の宿り、誰が為にか心を悩まし、何によりてか目を喜ばしむる。その、主と栖と、無常を争ふさま、いはゞあさがほの露にことならず。或は露落ちて花残れり。残るといへども朝日に枯れぬ。或は花しぼみて露なほ消えず。消えずといへども夕を待つ事なし。

The flow of the moving river is ceaseless, yet it is not the original water. The foam floating in pools now breaks up, now comes together, and there is no instance of where it stops for long. The people in the world and their dwellings are also thus.

People’s dwellings, high and low, lining up the ridges of their roofs and squabbling over rooftiles in the jewel-strewn capital pass through the generations without end, and yet, should you inquire if this be true, the houses extent from long ago are few. Houses burned down last year are built in this one. Or great houses decline, becoming small. It is the same with the people dwelling therein. While your location does not change and there are many people, from among the twenty or thirty people you would see long ago, there are now only one or two.

A way of life where one dies in the morning and is born at night is similar to the foam of the water. People who are born and then die, it is not known from where they came and to where they go. Another thing is not known is why they worry themselves 何によりてか to make a pleasure for their eyes in these temporay dwelling-places. The scene of a master and a dwelling fighting for impermanence differs not from dew on, say, a morning glory. And then again, the dew may fall and the flower remain. But though we say “remain”, it withers in the morning sun. And then again, the flower may wither and the dew remain. But though we say “remain”, it waits not for evening.

二

予、ものの心を知れりしより、四十あまりの春秋をおくれるあひだに、世の不思議を見る事、やゝたびたびになりぬ。去安元三年四月廿八日かとよ。風激しく吹きて、静かならざりし夜、戌の時許、都の東南より火出で来て、西北に至る。はてには朱雀門・大極殿・大学寮・民部省などまで移りて、一夜のうちに塵灰となりにき。

In the forty-some springs and autumns I have passed since the time when I came to know how things worked, there have been a few times when I have seen strange things in the world. I think it was the 28th of the fourth month in the third year of Angen (1175), the era past. On a night that would not be quiet and the wind blew ferociously, fire broke out from the southeast of the capital in the hour of the dog (8 to 10 PM) and went to the northwest. It moved to places such as the Shuzaku Gate, the Great Hall of State, The State Academy and the Ministry of Civil Affiars, which turned to dust and ashes in a single night.