Nakanaka ni kie wa kienade uzumibi no ikite kai naki yo ni mo aru kana

English Translation

Rather than go out
it would be better far to die—
yet like buried embers
I live on, to no purpose,
still here in this world

Meaning

Better, surely, to go out altogether—yet like embers buried in ash, I neither die nor burn, but live on in this world to no purpose.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 689

Headnote: "Composed on buried embers."
This is the first poem of the sequence on buried embers and charcoal kilns. The speaker laments that, like embers buried in ash that neither go out nor burn, he lives on in a world where living has no purpose. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of buried embers.
The author, "Provisional Archbishop Eien," is Eien. A monk of Kōfukuji who rose to Provisional Archbishop, he was famed for his poem on the cuckoo and was called the Archbishop of the First Song.
The scene is a winter night, and the place is beside a hearth with buried embers.
The direct occasion is the topic "Buried Embers."

The first line, "nakanaka ni," means "rather," "better altogether."
The second line, "kie wa kienade," means "if I would go out, I should go out, yet I do not," with "nade" formed from "na," the irrealis form of the perfective auxiliary "nu," and the negative conjunctive particle "de."
The third line, "uzumibi no," means "like buried embers," embers kept alive under ash, with "no" expressing likeness and running on to the fourth line.
The fourth line, "ikite kai naki," means "living, yet to no purpose." "Kie," going out, in the second line and "iki," living, in the fourth are associated words of buried embers, layering a fire that goes out and a fire that stays alive.
The last line, "yo ni mo aru kana," means "still I remain in the world," with "kana" as an exclamatory particle. The poem laments a self that lingers on without purpose, likening it to buried embers that neither blaze up nor die out but keep a faint life beneath the ash. From the splendid scenes of winter hunting in the poems before, it turns to a personal lament entrusted to the buried embers of a winter hearth.

Author

Yoen

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other