Sukagawa須賀川
1Sukagawa — How Did You Cross the Barrier?
とかくして越行くまゝにあふくま川をわたる左に會津根高く右に岩城相馬三春の庄ひたち下野の地をさかひて山つらなるかげ沼といふ所を行にけふは空くもりて影うつらずすか川の驛に等窮といふものを尋て四五日とゝめらる先白河のせきいかに越つるやと問ふ長途の勞身心くるしく風景に魂うばはれ懷舊に腸を斷てはか〳〵しうおもひめくらさず 風流のはしめやおくの田植うた
Making my way across as best I could, I crossed the Abukuma River. On the left Aizune rises high, and on the right lie the estates of Iwaki, Sōma, and Miharu, and the mountains run on, dividing the lands of Hitachi and Shimotsuke. I passed a place called Kagenuma, but today the sky was clouded and no shadow was mirrored there.
At the post town of Sukagawa Sora and I called on a man named Tōkyū, and he kept us four or five days. First he asked, "How did you cross the Shirakawa Barrier?" The toil of the long road had worn my body and mind, my soul had been carried off by the scenery, my heart was cut through by thoughts of old days, and I could not turn my thoughts properly.
The beginning of elegance — / the rice-planting song of Ōshū
2Three Scrolls Are Made
無下に越えんもさすがにと語れは脇第三とつゞけて三卷となしぬ
It would be too bare to let it pass with nothing, I said as we talked, and a second verse and a third followed, and three scrolls were made.
Interlinear notes 1
一本とはトアリ
Another text has 「とは」.
3The Monk Under the Chestnut Tree
此宿の傍に大なる栗の木蔭をたのみて世をいとふ僧ありとちひろふ深山もかくやと閒に覺えられてものにかきつけ侍る 栗といふ文字は西の木とかきて西方淨土に便ありと
Beside this post town there is a monk who has turned away from the world, living in the shade of a great chestnut tree. It felt as still as the deep mountains where horse chestnuts are gathered must have been, and I wrote this down on something at hand.
The character for chestnut (栗) is written with west (西) over tree (木), so they say it has a bond with the Pure Land of the West.
4The Character for Chestnut (栗)
行基ぼさつ一生杖にもはしらにも此木を用ひ給ふとかや 世の人のみつけぬ花や軒の栗
They say that the bodhisattva Gyōki used this wood all his life, for his staff and for his pillars.
A flower the people of the world do not notice — / the chestnut by the eaves
Interlinear notes 1
一本ぼさつのトアリ
Another text has 「ぼさつの」.