寛永三年拾月日、さることありて、君之御前ヲ退テ、私ならず山にわけ入ぬれば、みつから世をのかるゝと人は云めれと、物うき山のすまひ、柴の庵りの風のみあれて、かけひならては、つゆ音ノウモノナシ。
In the tenth month of Kan’ei 3 (1626), certain circumstances led me to withdraw from service before my lord. It was not out of self-interest, but when I entered the mountains people said that I had turned my back on the world. In truth, amid those melancholy mountains, only the wind disturbed my brushwood hermitage; were it not for the bamboo waterspout, even the dew would have made no sound.
此世の外ハよそならし、侘ても至つれつれ、先祖の跡をたつね、兵法の道を学といへとも、習之心持やすからす、殊更此比は自得一味ヲあけて、名を付、習とせしかたはら多かりけれは、根本之習をもぬしぬしが得たる方に聞請テ、門弟たりといへとも、二人の覚は二理と成て理さたまらす。
There outside the world, all seemed a realm apart; austere as it may have been, it soon reached the height of tedium. Following in the footsteps of my ancestors, I had studied the martial arts, yet the true spirit of the pursuit was not easily attained. Especially lately, every man who achieves some fragment of understanding gives his name to it and calls it a “school” — there are many such cases. Even having learnt the fundamentals from the teachers who themselves attained them, though they be fellow disciples, two men’s realisation becomes two principles, and the Principle itself is left unsettled.
さるにより、秀綱公より宗厳公、今宗矩公ノ目録ヲ取あつめ、ながれをうる其人々にとへは、かれは知り、かれは不知、かれ知たるハ、則これに寄シ、かれ不知ハ又知たる方ニテ是をたつねて書シ、聞つくし見つくし、大形習の心持ならん事ヲよせて書附ハ、詞にハいひものへやせむ、身に得事やすからす。
Therefore, gathering the transmission lists from Lord Hidetsuna through Lord Munetoshi and now Lord Munenori, I questioned those who had received the tradition. One knew, another did not. What one knew I took and added here; what another did not know I sought from those who did, and wrote it down. Having exhausted what could be heard and seen, I have compiled and written what seems to be the general spirit of the teaching. Yet to express it in words is not easily done, and to realise it in one’s own body is harder still.
折ふし関東へひとゝせ下りしに、夏の稽古はしまりける寛永拾四年五月初日より、秋終に至テ是ヲ学、老父ノ相伝一々書留テ、此ヲ寄スル也。此左に寄シタル数々の習、重々の心持ヲ三ツにわけて、三つを亦ひとつに寄シテ予の得道とせり。
On one occasion I went down to the Kantō region for a year. From when the summer training began on the first day of the fifth month of Kan’ei 14 (1637) until the end of autumn I studied this art. I recorded each of my venerable father’s transmissions in writing, and I drew upon these notes. The various teachings and the many states of mind gathered in this record I divided into three, and then united the three again into one, making this the path of my own attainment.
然とも、向ふまたかくのことく我にひとしくあらん敵ニハ、勝負いかんとも心得かたし。さるによつて、おもふその至極を一巻ニ述る。老父に捧捧ハ父の云ク、これ不残やき捨タランニしくハあらしと也。
Nevertheless, if faced with an adversary equal to myself, I could not tell whether I would win or lose. Therefore I set down what I believe to be the ultimate principle in a single volume. When I offered it in reverence to my venerable father, he said, “It would be best to burn all of this.”
尤至々極々せりと思ふ心は心のにこり成と得とくしてはあれとも、其にこりなき心を自由に用得事かたいかな。
Indeed, the mind that believes it has reached the utmost is itself a murky mind; and though one may understand this, how hard it is to make free use of one’s mind entirely without such murkiness!
于時沢庵大和尚へなけきたてまつり、一則のかふあん御しめしをうけ、一心得道たらすといへとも、忝なくも御筆ヲくはへられ、父かいしんてんしんの秘術、事理一体、本分之弦味ことことくつきたり。此ほとの予かむねの雲はれにけり。
At that time I laid my troubles before the Great Priest Takuan. He gave me a single kōan to guide me, and though I strove single-mindedly to complete my path, he graciously added his own brush. Thereupon the secrets that my father had tried to impart to me through heart-to-heart transmission, the unity of principle and action, and the timbre of one’s true nature — all these were brought to full realisation. By this, the clouds in my breast were at last dispelled.
尋行道のあるしやよるの杖
つくこそいらね月のいつれば
よって此書を月之抄と名付ル也。ここに至テみれは、老父のいはれし一言、今許尊感心不浅也。如此云ハ、我自由自在を得身に似り。サニハあらす。月としらは、やみにそ月はおもふへし。一首
He who travels by night needs his staff to feel his way,
but once the moon has risen, he needs it no longer.
For this reason, I have named this text Reflections on the Moon. Now that I have come to this point, I feel deep reverence and gratitude for the words once spoken by my venerable father. To speak in this way is as though I have attained complete freedom. This is not so. In order to know the moon, one must contemplate it in the darkness.
月よゝしよゝしと人のつけくれ
とまたいてやらぬ山影のいほ
“The moon is fair, the moon is fair,” people tell me,
yet it has not yet risen above my hut in the mountain’s shadow.
寛永拾九壬午二月吉辰筆ヲ染。
On an auspicious day in the second month of Kan’ei 19 (1642), I set my brush to ink.
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