Moving the Capital to Fukuhara福原遷都
1A sudden move of the capital — the city empties overnight
又おなじ年の六月の頃、にはかに都うつり侍りき。いと思ひの外なりし事なり。大かたこの京のはじめを聞けば、嵯峨の天皇の御時、都とさだまりにけるより後、既に數百歲を經たり。異なるゆゑなくて、たやすく改まるべくもあらねば、これを世の人、たやすからずうれへあへるさま、ことわりにも過ぎたり。されどとかくいふかひなくて、みかどよりはじめ奉りて、大臣公卿ことごとく攝津國難波の京にうつり給ひぬ。世に仕ふるほどの人、誰かひとりふるさとに殘り居らむ。官位に思ひをかけ、主君のかげを賴むほどの人は、一日なりとも、とくうつらむとはげみあへり。時を失ひ世にあまされて、ごする所なきものは、愁へながらとまり居れり。軒を爭ひし人のすまひ、日を經つゝあれ行く。家はこぼたれて淀川に浮び、地は目の前に畠となる。人の心皆あらたまりて、たゞ馬鞍をのみ重くす。牛車を用とする人なし。西南海の所領をのみ願ひ、東北國の庄園をば好まず。
Again, about the sixth month of that same year, the capital was moved without warning. It was a thing altogether beyond expectation.
When one hears how this capital began, it was fixed as the capital in the time of Emperor Saga, and several hundred years have passed since then. It was not a thing to be changed lightly without some particular cause, and so the people of the world grieved and lamented over it more than was only natural. Yet for all their talk it came to nothing, and beginning with the emperor himself, the ministers and the high nobles all moved to the capital at Naniwa in the province of Settsu.
Among those who held office in the world, who would stay behind alone in the old city? Those who had their hearts set on rank and leaned on the shadow of their lord vied with one another to move even a day the sooner. Those who had lost their moment and were left over by the world, with nowhere to turn, stayed on in their sorrow.
The dwellings of people who had once vied for eaves grew more desolate day by day. Houses were pulled down and floated off along the Yodo River, and the ground turned to field before one's eyes. The hearts of the people were all made over. They prized the saddle alone, and no one had use for an ox carriage (牛車). They desired holdings only on the western and southern seas, and cared nothing for estates in the eastern and northern provinces.
Interlinear notes 1
八字イ無
In another copy these eight characters are missing.
2A visit to the new capital, and the return to the old
その時、おのづから事のたよりありて、津の國今の京に到れり。所のありさまを見るに、その地ほどせまくて、條里をわるにたらず。北は山にそひて高く、南は海に近くてくだれり。なみの音つねにかまびすしくて、潮風殊にはげしく、內裏は山の中なれば、かの木の丸殿もかくやと、なかなかやうかはりて、いうなるかたも侍りき。日々にこぼちて川もせきあへずはこびくだす家はいづくにつくれるにかあらむ。なほむなしき地は多く、作れる屋はすくなし。ふるさとは既にあれて、新都はいまだならず。ありとしある人、みな浮雲のおもひをなせり。元より此處に居れるものは、地を失ひてうれへ、今うつり住む人は、土木のわづらひあることをなげく。道のほとりを見れば、車に乘るべきはうまに乘り、衣冠布衣なるべきはひたゝれを着たり。都のてふりたちまちにあらたまりて、唯ひなびたる武士にことならず。これは世の亂るゝ瑞相とか聞きおけるもしるく、日を經つゝ世の中うき立ちて、人の心も治らず、民のうれへつひにむなしからざりければ、おなじ年の冬、猶この京に歸り給ひにき。されどこぼちわたせりし家どもはいかになりにけるにか、ことごとく元のやうにも作らず。ほのかに傳へ聞くに、いにしへのかしこき御代には、あはれみをもて國ををさめ給ふ。則ち御殿に茅をふきて軒をだにとゝのへず。煙のともしきを見給ふ時は、かぎりあるみつぎものをさへゆるされき。これ民をめぐみ、世をたすけ給ふによりてなり。今の世の中のありさま、昔になぞらへて知りぬべし。
At that time, as business happened to take me there, I came to the new capital in the province of Settsu. Looking at how the place lay, the ground was cramped, not wide enough to lay out the jōri grid (條里). To the north it rose against the hills; to the south it fell away toward the sea. The sound of the waves was forever loud and the salt wind unusually harsh. The imperial palace (內裏) stood among the hills, and one thought that the old palace of rough timber must have been like this. Yet in its own way it was unlike anything else, and had a quiet charm about it.
Where in the world were they building all those houses, pulled down day after day and carried downstream faster than the river could take them? Empty ground was still plentiful and the houses built were few. The old city already lay desolate, and the new capital was not yet made. Every person there felt like a drifting cloud. Those who had lived in the place from the first grieved at losing their land, and those who had now moved in complained of the labour of timber and earth.
Looking along the roadside, men who should have ridden in carriages rode on horseback, and men who should have worn cap and robe wore the hitatare, the dress of a warrior. The manners of the capital were made over in a single morning, and were no different from those of rough provincial warriors. This, I had heard, was a sign that the world would fall into disorder, and so it proved. As the days went by the world was unsettled, the hearts of the people would not be calmed, and the grief of the common people came in the end to something, so that in the winter of that same year the court returned to this capital. But what became of the houses that had been pulled down and carried off? Not all of them were built again as they had been.
I have heard it faintly told that in the wise reigns of old the rulers governed the country with compassion. They thatched the palace with reeds and did not even set the eaves in order, and when they saw that the smoke of the cooking fires rose thinly, they remitted even the appointed tribute. This was because they cherished the people and helped the world. Set the state of the world today beside the old days, and one may judge it well enough.