背きてもなほ憂きものは世なりけり
身を離れたる心ならねば
身を離れたる心ならねば
- Roma-ji
-
Somukitemo nao uki mono wa yo narikeri mi o hanaretaru kokoro naraneba
- English Translation
-
Even having turned
away, still what grieves me so
is the world, I find,
for this is not a heart that
has been parted from the self.
- Meaning
- Even after I have turned away from it, the world is still what grieves me, for my heart has not been parted from my body.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1752
Headnote: "When Prince-Priest Shukaku had poets compose fifty-poem sequences."
This is the sixth of the poems on turning from the world. Even after renouncing it, the world is still wretched, for the heart is not separated from the body. He laments that even after taking vows, as long as there is a body the heart is there too, and one cannot escape the world's sorrows. According to the headnote, it belongs to a fifty-poem sequence that Prince-Priest Shukaku had poets compose.
The author, "Jakuren Hōshi," is Jakuren. His lay name was Fujiwara no Sadanaga; a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he was adopted as his son. After taking vows he remained active as a poet and was appointed a compiler of the Shin Kokinshū, but died before its completion.
Prince-Priest Shukaku was a son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa and became abbot of Ninnaji.
The first line, "somukitemo," means "even having turned from the world." "Temo" marks a concessive supposition.
The second line, "nao uki mono wa," means "what is still wretched."
In the third line, "yo narikeri," "keri" expresses realization. He comes to see that the world's sorrow remains even after renouncing it, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "mi o hanaretaru," means "separated from the body." Where Saigyō's poem told of a heart wandering away from the body, this one says the heart cannot leave it.
The last line, "kokoro naraneba," means "since it is not such a heart." Through inversion it gives the reason afterward, concluding that as long as body and heart are one there is no escape from the world's sorrows.
- Author
- Jakuren
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Ukegataki hito no sugata ni ukabiidete korizu ya tare mo mata shizumubeki
- Next Poem
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Mi no usa o omoishirazu wa ikaga semu itoinagara mo nao sugusu kana