Prevod

Long ago, the Major Counsellor of Momozono lived at the place now known as Sesonji. When he received an imperial decree appointing him a general, he had the residence repaired in preparation for hosting the great banquet that marked his promotion. But just two days before the celebration, he suddenly died. His servants all scattered, leaving only his wife and young son to live on in the desolate house. This son was Chikamitsu, who later became head of the Bureau of Palace Maintenance. The Ichijō Regent acquired the residence, and when he became Chancellor, he held his own great banquet there. At the southwest corner was a burial mound. The earthen enclosure wall had been extended around it, so that the mound lay just below the corner. “I shall build a Buddhist hall there,” the Regent decided. “We will clear away this mound and build the hall on the site.” Those about him agreed. “That will surely bring great spiritual merit to whoever lies buried there,” they said. When they dug into the mound, they found a stone chest. Opening it, they saw a nun of about twenty-five or twenty-six lying within as though fast asleep. Her complexion was lovely, and even the colour of her lips had not altered in the least; her beauty was beyond description. She wore layers of exquisitely beautiful robes in many colours. Perhaps she had died suddenly while still young. A fine metal bowl had been set beside her, and everything in the chest gave off an incomparably sweet fragrance. Astonished, people crowded round to look. Then a wind blew from the northwest, and she and all her belongings crumbled into dust of many colours and vanished. Not a trace remained except the metal bowl. “However long ago she lived, surely her bones and hair should not simply scatter away. To turn to dust when the wind blows and be swept away like this—what an extraordinary thing!” people said, and everyone at the time marvelled at it. Not long afterward, the Regent himself died, and people wondered whether this was the dead woman’s revenge.