The pealing of the bells of the Jetavana temple ring

with the sound of the impermanence of all material things.

The colour of the paired Sala trees gives witness

to the truth that all who flourish must necessarily perish.

Those who flaunt their pleasures are not long for the world;

they are as brief as the dream of a Spring night.

And the brave ones are vanquished in the end;

they are merely as specks of dust before the wind.

When we look at the records of courts distant from our own,

we encounter Zhao Gao of Qin, Wang Mang of Han,

Zhu Yi of Liang, and Lushan of Tang, all of whom were

loath to follow the dictates of the governments

of their ministers and Emperors, preferring instead

to indulge their pleasures, heed not the admonitions

they heard, until the state itself began to fall into

civil strife which they did not perceive,

and until the people began to suffer in anguish

which they refused to acknowledge.

All were short-lived, and all are dead.

Looking more closely to our own courts, we have the

examples of Masakado in the Shohei era,

Sumitomo in the Tengyo, Yoshichika in the Kowa, and

Nobuyori in the Heiji, all of whom again

dissipated their minds and their bravery.

Yet, in the more recent past, there is the example of the

Lay Priest of Rokuhara, the former Great Minister of State,

his Excellency the honourable Taira Kiyomori,

to tell of whom, as I about to do, will require words and

sentiments of which I have scarcely the power to relay.

(Translation by KLR)