The Great Earthquake of Genryaku元曆の大地震
1The great earthquake in the second year of Genryaku — the most fearful of fearful things
また元曆二年のころ、おほなゐふること侍りき。そのさまよのつねならず。山くづれて川を埋み、海かたぶきて陸をひたせり。土さけて水わきあがり、いはほわれて谷にまろび入り、なぎさこぐふねは浪にたゞよひ、道ゆく駒は足のたちどをまどはせり。いはむや都のほとりには、在々所々堂舍廟塔、一つとして全からず。或はくづれ、或はたふれたる間、塵灰立ちあがりて盛なる煙のごとし。地のふるひ家のやぶるゝ音、いかづちにことならず。家の中に居れば忽にうちひしげなむとす。はしり出づればまた地われさく。羽なければ空へもあがるべからず。龍ならねば雲にのぼらむこと難し。おそれの中におそるべかりけるは、たゞ地震なりけるとぞ覺え侍りし。
Again, about the second year of Genryaku, there was a great earthquake. The manner of it was beyond the ordinary.
The hills crumbled and buried the rivers; the sea tilted over and flooded the land. The earth split and water gushed up, boulders cracked and rolled down into the valleys. Boats rowing along the shore drifted on the waves, and horses on the road lost their footing. Still more, about the capital, there was not one temple hall, shrine or pagoda, in place after place, that stood whole. Some crumbled and some fell, and while they did, dust and ash rose up like a dense smoke.
The sound of the shaking ground and the breaking houses was no different from thunder. Stay inside the house, and you thought you would be crushed at once. Run outside, and the ground split open. Having no wings, one could not rise into the sky; not being a dragon, one could hardly climb the clouds. Of all fearful things, I felt, the earthquake alone is truly to be feared.
Interlinear notes 1
ぬイ
In another copy "たふれたる", were falling, reads "たふれぬる".
2A warrior's only son, and how it was all forgotten
その中に、あるものゝふのひとり子の、六つ七つばかりに侍りしが、ついぢのおほひの下に小家をつくり、はかなげなるあとなしごとをして遊び侍りしが、俄にくづれうめられて、あとかたなくひらにうちひさがれて、二つの目など一寸ばかりうち出されたるを、父母かゝへて、聲もをしまずかなしみあひて侍りしこそあはれにかなしく見はべりしか。子のかなしみにはたけきものも耻を忘れけりと覺えて、いとほしくことわりかなとぞ見はべりし。かくおびたゞしくふることはしばしにて止みにしかども、そのなごりしばしば絕えず。よのつねにおどろくほどの地震、二三十度ふらぬ日はなし。十日廿日過ぎにしかば、やうやうまどほになりて、或は四五度、二三度、もしは一日まぜ、二三日に一度など、大かたそのなごり、三月ばかりや侍りけむ。四大種の中に、水火風はつねに害をなせど、大地に至りては殊なる變をなさず。むかし齊衡のころかとよ。おほなゐふりて、東大寺の佛のみぐし落ちなどして、いみじきことゞも侍りけれど、猶このたびにはしかずとぞ。すなはち人皆あぢきなきことを述べて、いさゝか心のにごりもうすらぐと見えしほどに、月日かさなり年越えしかば、後は言の葉にかけて、いひ出づる人だになし。
Among all this, the only son of a certain warrior, a boy of six or seven, had built himself a little house under the roof of an earthen wall and was playing at some fleeting game of make believe. It fell in on him all at once and buried him, and he was crushed flat beyond all trace, his two eyes forced out an inch or so. His father and mother took him in their arms and grieved together without sparing their voices, and that was the most piteous and sorrowful thing I saw. Even a strong man forgets his shame in grief for a child, I thought, and I found it pitiful and only right.
The violent shaking lasted only a little while, but the tremors after it did not soon cease. Not a day passed without twenty or thirty shocks of the sort that would startle one at any other time. After ten days and twenty days had gone by they slowly grew rarer: four or five times, then two or three, then every other day, then once in two or three days. Altogether the tremors went on for some three months, I think.
Among the four great elements, water and fire and wind do harm all the time, but the earth does not commonly bring on any strange calamity. Long ago, about the Saikō years I think, there was a great earthquake in which the head of the Buddha at Tōdai-ji fell and other dreadful things happened, but even that, they say, did not match this time.
Just then everyone spoke of how empty the world is, and the clouding of their hearts seemed to grow a little thinner. But as the months piled up and the year turned, afterwards there was not a soul who so much as brought it to his lips.