Shizu no o no asana asana ni koritsumuru shibashi no hodo mo arigata no yo ya - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

賤の男の朝な朝なに樵りつむる
しばしのほどもありがたの世や

Roma-ji: Shizu no o no asana asana ni koritsumuru shibashi no hodo mo arigata no yo ya
English Translation: Like the brushwood cut
and piled up morning after morning
by the humble woodsman,
even for a little while
how hard this world is to endure!
Meaning: Like the brushwood a humble woodsman cuts and stacks each morning—even for so brief a while, how hard it is to go on living in this world!
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1837

Headnote: "Written on a sliding screen at the time when, having long wished to practice austerities but held back by ties I could not cast off, I resolved at last with an easy heart after my parents and others had died."
This is the second of the poems on resenting and lamenting the world. Like the brushwood a woodsman cuts and stacks each morning, even a brief while is hard to live through in this world. According to the headnote, having long wished to practice austerities but held back by ties he could not cast off, he wrote it on a sliding screen when, his parents having died, he at last resolved with an easy heart to take vows. It voices the feeling that in this impermanent world not a moment's delay remains.
The author, "Yamada Hōshi," is a figure whose career has not come down in detail.

The first line, "shizu no o no," is a humble man, here a woodcutter.
The second line, "asana asana ni," means "morning after morning."
The third line, "koritsumuru," means "cutting and stacking wood." The lines up to here form a preface that suggests the "shiba," brushwood, being stacked and leads to "shibashi" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "shibashi no hodo mo," "shibashi" is a pivot word meaning both brushwood and "a little while."
In the last line, "arigata no yo ya," "arigata" is the stem of the adjective "arigatashi," "hard to live on in." "Ya" is exclamatory, closing with feeling for the impermanent world. Following the mountain rice fields of the preceding poem, it entrusts feeling to the labor of mountain folk.
Author: Yamada Hōshi
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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