Asagoto no akai no mizu ni toshi kurete waga yo no hodo no kumarenuru kana

English Translation

Each morning drawing
water from the sacred well,
the year has ended—
and with it I have measured out
how much remains of my life

Meaning

Drawing water from the sacred well each morning, I have seen the year come to its end—and with each draught, the measure of my own remaining life has been drawn away.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 700

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the tenth poem of the year's-end sequence. Drawing water from the sacred well each morning, the speaker has seen the year end, and with that water the measure of his own remaining life has been drawn and reckoned. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Provisional Preceptor Ryūshō," is Ryūshō. "Provisional Preceptor" is a clerical office ranking with the Preceptor, one of the offices of the Monastic Council, and Ryūshō was a monk who held it.
The scene is the end of the year, and the place is a temple with a sacred well.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "asagoto no," means "every morning's" and modifies "akai," sacred well, in the second line.
In the second line, "akai no mizu ni," "akai" means the well from which water is drawn to offer to the Buddha. It shows water drawn for the daily morning service.
The third line, "toshi kurete," means "the year has ended."
The fourth line, "waga yo no hodo no," means "the measure of what remains of my life."
In the last line, "kumarenuru kana," "kuma" carries both "drawing" water and "gauging," reckoning. "Re" is the continuative form of the spontaneous auxiliary "ru," "nuru" the attributive form of the perfective auxiliary "nu," and "kana" an exclamatory particle. Each morning's drawing of water marks another day passed, and through their accumulation the remaining span of one's own life has come to be reckoned; the poem entrusts its year's-end feeling to a monk's daily round of devotion. Following the preceding poem's year's end seen from the Buddhist path, it finds the end of the year within a monk's daily practice.

Author

Ryūshō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other