世の中を心高くも厭ふかな
富士の煙を身のおもひにて
富士の煙を身のおもひにて
- Roma-ji
-
Yo no naka o kokoro takaku mo itou kana fuji no keburi o mi no omoi nite
- English Translation
-
This world of ours
with a lofty heart indeed
I turn away from—
taking the smoke of Mount Fuji
as the fire of my own heart.
- Meaning
- With a lofty heart I turn away from this world, taking the smoke of Mount Fuji as the fire of my own longing.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1614
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on Mount Fuji. Taking the smoke of Fuji as the fire of his own heart, the poet turns from the world with a lofty spirit. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, "Saki no Daisōjō Jien," was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō.
Mount Fuji stands on the border of Suruga and Kai provinces. In this period smoke is said to have risen from it, and that smoke was sung as the fire of longing.
The first line, "yo no naka o," presents the world that is to be shunned.
The second line, "kokoro takaku mo," means "with a lofty heart." It is an expression that matches the height of Mount Fuji.
The third line, "itou kana," means "how I shun it." "Kana" is an exclamatory final particle, and the poem breaks here after the third line.
The fourth line, "fuji no keburi o," means "the smoke rising from Mount Fuji." Through inversion, the lower half explains the state of the heart that shuns the world. It also echoes the poems of smoke beginning with 1592 in this book.
The last line, "mi no omoi nite," pivots on "omoi," both "thought" and "hi," "fire." Making the fire that produces the smoke his own longing, the poet lays his resolve to shun the world upon the smoke rising high.
- Author
- Jien
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Suzukayama ukiyo o yoso ni furisutete ika ni nariyuku waga mi naruran
- Next Poem
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Kaze ni nabiku fuji no keburi no sora ni kiete yukue mo shiranu waga omoi kana