Over sea and hills,
I spent my heart upon the road;
no sacred bowl found—
from the bowl that was not there,
blood-red tears flowed at last.
- Meaning
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I searched far and wide, over seas and mountains, exhausting my heart upon the road, yet the sacred bowl was nowhere to be found—and so blood-red tears came to flow.
- Commentary
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One of the five suitors who sought Princess Kaguya, Prince Ishitsukuri, was set the impossible task of bringing back “the Buddha’s stone begging bowl.”
What he brought was a soot-blackened stone bowl from before the image of the Venerable Pindola, with an artificial flowering branch added, and he presented it to Princess Kaguya. This poem was written in the letter placed inside that bowl.
“Naishi no hachi” plays on “naishi” with the sound of weeping and “ishi” (stone), and “the bowl’s tears” puns on “bowl” with “blood.”
In bringing back a soot-blackened bowl, one can glimpse Prince Ishitsukuri’s self-serving intent.
- Source
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Taketori Monogatari
- Other
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Two strokes for “ko,”
the ox-horn shape for “i,”
the straight line “shi,”
the crooked form for “ku”—
thus, my lord, you are.
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On plum-blossomed boughs,
a bush warbler comes to rest;
calling for the spring—
yet still, though it calls and calls,
the snow keeps falling down.
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Even the light of resting dew might well lodge—
on Mount Ogura, what was it you sought?
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Before Mount White, might even light be lost?
Though I cast away the bowl, I still place my hope.