CHORUS
A man comes from the world I left long since.
How thankful am I. ’Tis the voice of prayer!
CHORUS
I
O human world. How much I long for thee.
II
A [living] man while spending [in this world]
Even a single day and single night,
A [living] man while spending [in this world]
Even a single day and single night,
Eight billion and four thousand things has he
To think about. But how much more have I,
I, who left long ago the pleasant world—
’Twas in the reign of Tenchi and by now
The second Horikawa holds his sway.
Oh, that once more unto the pleasant world
I might return. How long in shady weeds
And ’neath the moss, how long I buried lie!
But worse, not buried under the cool earth
I suffer from a roasting heat and burn,
Within a flaming dwelling-place, behold!
Within a flaming dwelling-place, behold!
PRIEST
Alas! How truly piteous is thy state,
If only thou wouldst once but cast away
The clouds of thy delusions, thou wouldst be
Freed from thy many sins and from all ills.
“From evils all, and sins, from hells and fiends,
Illnesses all and deaths, be thou set free.”
Oh, quickly float thyself in buoyant thought!
GHOST