元禄名槍譜 俵星玄蕃 [Genroku Meisoufu Tawaraboshi Genba] [English translation]

Even if my spear gets rust, my name won't

I'm the spirit of a man called Genba

Next to the shadow of the 47 ronins

I've served with my spear

Which is famous and smells like cherry blossoms of the Genroku era

Even disguised as a Soba seller

Jūheiji Sugino hidden ached me

Look at the vestiges of tonight

My skill to unbalance an opponent

Was the gift of a man's heart

I look back accumulating tears

Challenging the soba seller shape

"Let me at least hear your name"

It's something that didn't reach to my mouth

In life, silence is golden

Meeting and parting is the destiny

Tawaraboshi thinks again

While he drinks alone and calmly

Past the midnight

In his heart was sounding the breeze

Of the Sumida river flowing bravely

One, two, three strokes

Those are surely

The Yamaga school war drums

On December 14th, 1702, were shaking the Edo's night wind

The noise of the Yamaga drums doing the beat of one, two, three strokes

Rising surprisingly, making my ears clear by counting the drums I thought

"Oh, surely is the 47 ronins raid" I'll help them this time,

Isn't there maybe that soba seller that he left in the day? What was his name once again?

Because I want to report that I met him and parted. I put on the training shirt and Master Kokura's hakama

I raise high the vents and put on the white headband folding it behind

Unhanged on the beams, Officer Tawara carries an inherited nine shakus long spear in the right hand,

When I take a step outside the gap

The sky will get dark, the ground will be victorious and I'll go kicking the snow to the Matsusaka castle

When I try to get into Kira's mansion,

Now it's in the middle of the raid the supreme commander Kuranosuke

Tawaraboshi hurries to look and says "I'll help you with my unmatched spear"

He said "I deeply thank you for offering a big boulder"

However right here,

While I offer him a spear and he thanks me

On that moment a ronin kicks the snow

Saku, saku, saku, saku, saku, saku,

"Master" "Oh, the soba seller" No, no, no, no.

That name written on the neck it's Jūheiji Sugino,

"Don't value life but your name" was what I taught him

I wish him a good job, goodbye, goodbye

There's no officer who blocks the 47 ronins

By the bridge, pushing the thick end, Genba's spear is raised

Answering to the Yamaga drums

The moon becomes clear in the night sky

While dreams and rumors continue

By the Ryōgoku bridge will shine

Genba's tears in his firmly stepped spare

• Artist:Haruo Minami