The Whirlwind of Jishō治承の辻風
1The whirlwind in the fourth year of Jishō — even the karmic wind of hell
また治承四年卯月廿九日のころ、中の御門京極のほどより、大なるつじかぜ起りて、六條わたりまで、いかめしく吹きけること侍りき。三四町をかけて吹きまくるに、その中にこもれる家ども、大なるもちひさきも、一つとしてやぶれざるはなし。さながらひらにたふれたるもあり。けたはしらばかり殘れるもあり。又門の上を吹き放ちて、四五町がほどに置き、又垣を吹き拂ひて、隣と一つになせり。いはむや家の內のたから、數をつくして空にあがり、ひはだぶき板のたぐひ、冬の木の葉の風に亂るゝがごとし。塵を煙のごとく吹き立てたれば、すべて目も見えず。おびたゞしくなりとよむ音に、物いふ聲も聞えず。かの地獄の業風なりとも、かばかりにとぞ覺ゆる。家の損亡するのみならず、これをとり繕ふ間に、身をそこなひて、かたはづけるもの數を知らず。この風ひつじさるのかたに移り行きて、多くの人のなげきをなせり。つじかぜはつねに吹くものなれど、かゝることやはある。たゞごとにあらず。さるべき物のさとしかなとぞ疑ひ侍りし。
Again, about the twenty-ninth day of the fourth month in the fourth year of Jishō, a great whirlwind rose near Nakanomikado Kyōgoku and blew fiercely as far as the neighbourhood of Rokujō.
It swept over three or four chō, and of the houses caught within it, great and small alike, there was not one that was not broken. Some fell flat where they stood. Some had only beams and pillars left. It tore the roof from a gate and set it down four or five chō away, and it swept a fence clean away so that a house became one with its neighbour. Still more, the goods inside the houses rose into the sky to the very last of them, and the cypress-bark shingles and boards were like winter leaves scattered on the wind. It raised the dust like smoke, so that the eye could see nothing at all, and in the roaring, howling noise no voice could be heard. Even the karmic wind of hell (業風), I thought, could hardly be worse than this.
Houses were not merely ruined. While people were setting them to rights, countless others were hurt and left crippled. The wind moved off toward the southwest and left many people in grief.
Whirlwinds blow at all times, but was there ever such a thing as this? It was no common event. I wondered whether it was a warning of something to come.
Interlinear notes 1
ほかイ
In another copy "ほど", meaning about, reads "ほか", meaning beyond.