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!
Ah, grateful am I, for the voice of prayer Has reached my ears, and tho' my sufferings Do know no intermission, in hot hell The smoke clears back a moment, and I see A little open space. How glad I am!
Oh, how terrible! Who art thou? What! Of Sasada the spirit? And thou art the ghost of Chinu? And from right and left you hold me By the hands, and saying to me "Come, come, come." Though they torment me I don't dare to leave the shelter of my burning house; for no one, Nothing, is there to rely on. And I see another spirit Flying from afar towards me. Oh, how terrible! I see it, 'Tis the duck, and turned to iron, turned to steel it is before me!
With beaks of steel like naked swords the bird Pecks at my head and feasts upon my brain. Is it because of crimes I did commit? Oh, how resentful is it, cruel bird!
Oh! I pray thee, Priest, I pray thee, from these sufferings relieve me!
"The time of torment fierce has now arrived." The spirit had not finished saying this, When o'er the tomb flew out a band of flame.
And then its light became a hellish fiend,
Who raised the torture rod, and drove at her.
Before me is a sea if I attempt But to advance
By water and by fire am I now held In double torment.
I reach my hands, and do attempt to cling At once the column bursts out into flame-- The blazing pillar must I then embrace. Oh, scorching heat! Oh, unendurable! The whole five members of my body turned Into black smoke by this fierce burning fire.
And then when I arose, a jailor fiend Applied the torture-rod, and drove me out. I left the house and wandered through eight hells And there all suffering I underwent. Now I would show thee how I blotted out My many sins. Before thee lie the scenes First in the hell of all equality,[28] Then in the hell of black rope, devil led, And driven to the hell of gathering, Where all assemble. Then the hell of cries, Of bitter cries, came next, and then of heat, Of utmost heat, and then the hell of depth, Depth infinite, into whose space I fell Feet upwards and head downwards for three years And three months more, in agony the while. And after that a little interval-- The devils left me and the flames expired, I thought there was a respite to my pain, But then the darkness grew more terrible And to my burning house I would return I thought--but where then was it? To myself I asked the question in the pitchy dark. And seeking, seeking, to and fro I groped. "The Maiden's Tomb"--I searched it everywhere, And now at last I find "The Maiden's Tomb." Like flying dews leaving a grassy shade, Like flying dews leaving a grassy shade, The spirit's form has once more disappeared The spirit's shadow has now vanished.