The glory of three generations of the Fujiwara passed away like a dream in a single sleep, and the ruins of the great gate of the Hiraizumi residence lie a ri short of the town. Hidehira's residence has become fields and meadows, and only Kinkeizan, the hill Hidehira had built, keeps its old shape.
First we climbed Takadachi and saw the Kitakami River, a great river flowing from the Nanbu region. The Koromo River circles Izumi Castle and flows into the Kitakami below Takadachi. The old sites of Yasuhira and his men seem to have guarded the Nanbu entrance beyond the Koromo Barrier, holding back the Ezo.
Even so, the loyal retainers chosen to hold this castle won fame only for a moment, and now it is just a stretch of grass. Recalling Du Fu's poem, "The state is broken, mountains and rivers remain; spring comes to the city, and the grass grows green," I spread my hat and sat, shedding tears until the time had passed.
"Natsukusa ya / tsuwamonodomo ga / yume no ato" (Summer grasses: all that remains of warriors' dreams. Here Yoshitsune, his men and the warriors of the Fujiwara fought, dreaming of fame and glory.)
"U no hana ni / Kanefusa miyuru / shiraga kana" (Sora) (In the white deutzia I see Kanefusa, Yoshitsune's old retainer, fighting with his white hair flying.)
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The two halls of Chusonji, which I had long heard of with wonder, were open to view. The Sutra Hall keeps statues of the three generals (Kiyohira, Motohira and Hidehira), and the Golden Hall holds the coffins of the three generations and enshrines a Buddha with two attendants. The seven treasures were scattered and lost, the jeweled doors torn by wind, the golden pillars rotted by frost and snow; it should long since have crumbled into grass, but it has been newly enclosed on four sides and roofed against wind and rain, to serve for a while as a memorial of a thousand years ago.
"Samidare no / furinokoshite ya / Hikarido" (Have the early summer rains, which rot everything, left this one untouched? The Golden Hall still shines as of old.)