Yo no naka o itou made koso katakarame kari no yadori o oshimu kimi kana

English Translation

To renounce the world
may be too hard a thing to do,
yet I'm surprised at you,
who grudge a borrowed lodging
in this world of borrowed lives.

Meaning

Renouncing the world may be hard to do, and yet you begrudge even a borrowed lodging in this world that is only a passing inn.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 978

Headnote: "Composed when, on his way to Tennōji, a sudden rain fell and he asked for lodging at Eguchi, but was refused."
This is the first of the exchange between Saigyō and the courtesan Tae over lodging at Eguchi. Even if renouncing the world is hard, the speaker chides the courtesan who begrudges him even a passing lodging in this passing world. According to the headnote, it was composed when a sudden rain fell as he was on his way to Tennōji and he was refused lodging at Eguchi.
The author, Saigyō, whose lay name was Satō Norikiyo, served Retired Emperor Toba as a guard of the Northern Quarter before taking holy orders, a poet of the late Heian period. He traveled throughout the provinces composing poems, and his personal collection is the Sankashū.
The scene is a sudden rain on the pilgrimage to Tennōji, at Eguchi in Settsu Province.
The direct occasion is being refused lodging at Eguchi.
After it was composed, the courtesan Tae, mistress of the house, answered with the reply poem in the next poem, 979. The "Eguchi" of the headnote was a village of courtesans near the mouth of the Yodo River.

The first line, "yo no naka o," means "this world." The monk poet places the world itself as his subject.
The second line, "itou made koso," means "as far as renouncing it." The particle "koso" is answered by the realis "me" in the third line.
The third line, "katakarame," means "may well be hard." With "koso ... me" in the realis form it leads concessively on, and the poem breaks after this third line. He grants that leaving the world may be too much to ask of her.
In the fourth line, "kari no yadori o," "kari" carries both "kari," to borrow lodging, and "kari," transient, as this world is held to be. The request for lodging and the Buddhist idea that this world is only a passing inn are laid together in one word.
The last line, "oshimu kimi kana," means "and you begrudge it." It ends with the exclamatory "kana." Where 952 and 973 sing of borrowing lodging on the road, here lodging is refused, and the poet turns the reasoning of renouncing the world on one who begrudges even a passing inn.

Author

Saigyō

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other