はい、あの死骸は手前の娘が、片附いた男でございます。が、都のものではございません。若狭の国府の侍でございます。名は金沢の武弘、年は二十六歳でございました。いえ、優しい気立でございますから、遺恨なぞ受ける筈はございません。 娘でございますか？ 娘の名は真砂、年は十九歳でございます。これは男にも劣らぬくらい、勝気の女でございますが、まだ一度も武弘のほかには、男を持った事はございません。顔は色の浅黒い、左の眼尻に黒子のある、小さい瓜実顔でございます。 武弘は昨日娘と一しょに、若狭へ立ったのでございますが、こんな事になりますとは、何と云う因果でございましょう。しかし娘はどうなりましたやら、壻の事はあきらめましても、これだけは心配でなりません。どうかこの姥が一生のお願いでございますから、たとい草木を分けましても、娘の行方をお尋ね下さいまし。何に致せ憎いのは、その多襄丸とか何とか申す、盗人のやつでございます。壻ばかりか、娘までも………（跡は泣き入りて言葉なし） × × ×
Yes, that corpse is my daughter's husband, a man now done for. But he was no townsman of the capital. He was a retainer of the Wakasa provincial government. His name was Takehiko of Kanazawa, and he was twenty-six years of age. Nay, his was a gentle disposition, so there is no reason he should have earned any grudge.
My daughter, you ask? Her name is Masago, and she is nineteen. She is a bold woman, scarcely yielding to any man, yet she has never known a man other than Takehiko. Her face is of a swarthy complexion, a small melon-seed shape, with a mole at the outer corner of her left eye.
Yesterday Takehiko set out for Wakasa together with my daughter, but that it should come to this—what cruel fate is this? Yet what has become of my daughter, I know not. Though I resign myself to the loss of my son-in-law, this alone weighs upon me without cease. I beg you, this is an old crone's plea for all her remaining days: though you must part the very grasses and trees, seek out my daughter's whereabouts. Above all, hateful is that brigand, called Tajomaru or some such name. Not only my son-in-law, but my daughter as well…… (Here she breaks into weeping, and words fail her.)
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