t['e] ya!
Fun['e] ni sugar['e]ru.

[_Crying, "Now perchance I shall be saved!" The ghost
that sank into the deep Sea of Sin clings to the passing
ship!_[43]]

[Footnote 43: There is more weirdness in this poem than the above
rendering suggests. The word _ukaman_ in the fourth line can be
rendered as "shall perhaps float," or as "shall perhaps be saved" (in
the Buddhist sense of salvation),--as there are two verbs _ukami_.
According to an old superstition, the spirits of the drowned must
continue to dwell in the waters _until such time as they can lure the
living to destruction_. When the ghost of any drowned person succeeds
in drowning somebody, it may be able to obtain rebirth, and to leave
the sea forever. The exclamation of the ghost in this poem really
means, "Now perhaps I shall be able to drown somebody." (A very
similar superstition is said to exist on the Breton coast.) A common
Japanese saying about a child or any person who follows another too
closely and persistently is: _Kawa de shinda-y[=u]r['e][:i] no yona
tsur['e]-hoshigaru!_--"Wants to follow you everywhere like the ghost
of a drowned person."]

Ukaman to
Fun['e] we shita[:e]ru
Yur['e][:i] wa,
Shidzumishi h['i]to no
Omo[:i] naruran.

[_The ghosts following after our ship in their efforts to rise
again (or, "to be saved") might perhaps be the (last vengeful)
thoughts of drowned men.[44]]

[Footnote 44: Here I cannot attempt to render the various plays upon
words; but the term "_omo[:i]_" needs explanation. It means "thought"
or "thoughts;" but in colloquial phraseology it is often used as a
euphemism for a dying person's last desire of vengeance. In various
dramas it has been used in the signification of "avenging ghost." Thus
the exclamation, "His _thought_ has come back!"--in reference to a
dead man--really means: "His angry ghost appears!"]

Uram['e]shiki
Sugata wa sugoki
Yur['e][:i] no,
Kaji we jama suru
Fun['e] no Tomomori.

[_With vengeful aspect, the grisly ghost of Tomomori
(rises) at the stern of the ship to hinder the play of her
rudder._[45]]

[Footnote 45: There is a double meaning given by the use of the name
_Tomomori_ in the last line. _Tomo_ means "the stern" of a ship;
_mori_ means "to leak." So the poem suggests that the ghost of
Tomomori not only interferes with the ship's rudder, but causes her to
leak.]

Ochi-irit['e],
Uwo no ['e]jiki to