gate, exclaiming: ‘Thy friend, Kikaku, is right here. Let him see thy heroism.’ All the ronins must have already entered Kira’s house at that moment. I sang aloud:
‘It’s light—
The snow upon my hat,
When it’s mine.’
We shut the gate, raised the lighted lanterns by the outside fence, and secretly watched the progress of this extraordinary affair. The women called the men; the crying voice of boys and girls was carried by the sad wind. It seemed that the final object had been attained when the dawn approached. Gengo Otaka called on us with Chikara Oishi to thank us; Oh, it would be called, indeed, the honour of samurais. Otaka wrote the following poem:
‘Oh, blessing of sunlight!
They will soon be crushed—
Those thick ices.’
(This hokku poem suggests that his aim in completing the final revenge has been accomplished under heaven's mercy.)
