[_When I inquired for the master of the house that was
for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of
reply,--the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its
eyes and mouth![54] (i.e. its cracks)._]

[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests more
than even a free translation can express. _Waré_ means "I," or "mine,"
or "one's own," etc., according to circumstances; and _waré mé_
(written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes." But _warémé_
(one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The reader should
remember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only "upside-down
post," but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down post.]

Omoïkiya!
Sakasa-bashira no
Hashira-kaké
Kakinishit uta mo
Yamai ari to wa!

[_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon
the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted
upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness._[55]]

[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet is
up-side-down,"--all wrong. _Hashira-kaké_ ("pillar-suspended thing")
is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or painted,
which is hung to a post by way of ornament.]