Prevod

Long ago, the Kawara mansion was the home of Tōru, Minister of the Left. He had a likeness of Shiogama in Michinoku made in its grounds, and seawater brought in so that salt could be boiled there. Thus he lived amid all manner of delightful diversions. After the minister’s death, the mansion was presented to the retired Emperor Uda. The reigning Emperor, Daigo, often visited it. Once, while the retired Emperor was staying there, he heard the door of the storeroom in the west wing open around midnight, followed by a rustling, as though someone were approaching. When he looked, he saw a man splendidly dressed in scarlet court robes, wearing a sword and holding a ceremonial baton. The man seated himself respectfully some two bays away. “Who is that?” the retired Emperor asked. “An old man who is master of this house,” he replied. “Are you Minister Tōru?” “Indeed I am.” “Then what is your business here?” “This is my house, and so I dwell here. But with Your Majesty in residence, I find myself, with all due reverence, rather cramped. What am I to do?” “That is a most extraordinary thing to say,” the retired Emperor declared. “I live here because the late minister’s descendants gave this house to me. It would be another matter if I had seized it by force. Have you no sense of propriety, that you should resent me so?” At these words, spoken in a ringing voice, the apparition vanished as though wiped away. Those who were present said afterward, “An emperor is indeed no ordinary person. Could any common man have met that minister and spoken to him with such firmness?”