翻刻
【柱】細見序 壱
【挿し絵】
羅月亭
文笑図
花街よりは行程（みちのほど）も近く朝夕■も立並（たちなら）ふべき
程なれば婦人の飯喰（めしくふ）所も知て居て居て世に貪（むさぼ）りも
せぬ金銭（きんせん）を悪敷ものと思ひなば根引の金に入へき
ぞ元来（もとより）今は昔に十 倍（ばい）の暮し彼先に根引せしは
家に留（とめ）て各それ〳〵にかたづけ何（いづれ）□同明（どふぼり）の好（よし）みを結（むす）
び今はめてだき花の春 粋（すい）も無 粋（すい）も打こして情（なさけ）に
諸事の行（おこな）ひも家暮（やぼ）苦気（こけ）でない契情買の最上（さいじやう）と
□らさる事を綴（つゞ）りぬ
ひつじの
初春 墨水主人漫述
現代語訳
**細見花の源 序（続き）**
【挿し絵：羅月亭 文笑図】
花街（くるわ）からは距離も近く、朝夕にも立ち並べるほどの場所であれば、（その富人は）遊女たちが食事をする場所まで知り尽くしていた。世間で「貪欲だ」とか「金銭を悪しきものに使う」などと思う者がいるならば、そもそも根引きの金など出せるはずがあるまい。もともと今は昔の十倍もの暮らしぶりであり、先に根引きした（遊女たち）は家に引き取って、それぞれ（良い縁に）かたづけ、いずれも同じ堀（同朋）の誼（よしみ）を結び、今や目出度い「花の春」——粋も無粋も超え越えて、情けをもって諸事を行い、野暮でもなく、こけ（滑稽・見苦しい振る舞い）でもない、傾城買いの最上のあり方——そのことを（この書に）綴ったのである。
未（ひつじ）の年 初春
墨水主人 漫述
英語訳
**Saiken Hana no Minamoto — Preface (continued)**
[Illustration: *Ragetsu-tei, Bunshō-zu* ("A Picture of Literary Laughter by Ragetsu-tei")]
The flower quarter (*kuruwa*) being close enough in distance that one might stand among its establishments morning and evening alike, this man knew even where the women took their meals — so thoroughly familiar was he with the place. If anyone were to think of gold and silver as something wicked, or consider such spending as mere greed, they would never be capable of laying out the sums required for a *ne-biki* ransom in the first place. To begin with, his way of living was now ten times what it had been in earlier days. Those women he had previously ransomed (*ne-biki*) he took into his household and saw each of them properly settled, and with all of them he maintained the bond of fellow travelers sharing the same moat (*dōbori*) — the bond of old companions. Now, how auspicious — this "spring of blossoms": transcending both the refined (*sui*) and the unrefined (*busui*), conducting all affairs with warmth and human feeling (*nasake*), never boorish (*yabo*), never foolish or unseemly (*koke*) — this is set down here as the highest ideal of what it means to be a patron of the pleasure quarters.
The first spring of the Year of the Sheep (*hitsuji*)
Narrated at leisure by Bokusuì-shujin