Shirube aru toki ni dani yuke gokuraku no michi ni madoeru yo no naka no hito - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

しるべある時にだにゆけ極楽の
道にまどへる世の中の人

Roma-ji: Shirube aru toki ni dani yuke gokuraku no michi ni madoeru yo no naka no hito
English Translation: While there is a guide,
at least while it lasts, go forth—
upon the pathway
to paradise you are lost,
O people of this world.
Meaning: Go, at least while you still have a guide, you people of the world who wander lost on the road to paradise.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1922

Headnote: "A poem eaten by insects into a pillar of the lecture hall of Bodai-ji."
This is the seventh poem in the opening sequence of poems attributed to deities and eminent monks. It urges the people of the world, lost on the road to paradise, to go while guidance is still at hand. According to the headnote, it appeared as the trail of insects boring into a pillar of the lecture hall of Bodai-ji.
A miraculous poem said to have appeared not by human hand but in insect tracks, it sternly warns people not to miss the chance to meet the Buddha's teaching and to seek rebirth in paradise.
No author is named in the text. It is handed down as words that appeared in insect borings on a pillar of the lecture hall.

The first line, "shirube aru," means "there is guidance," referring to the Buddha's teaching preached in the lecture hall.
The second line, "toki ni dani yuke," limits with the particle "dani"—"at least while it lasts"—and urges strongly with the imperative "yuke." The poem breaks after this line.
The third line, "gokuraku no," names paradise, the Pure Land of Amida Buddha, and modifies the following "road."
In the fourth line, "michi ni madoeru," "ru" is the attributive form of the continuative auxiliary "ri," pointing to people who are lost even now.
The last line, "yo no naka no hito," is a vocative ending on a noun. Following the two opening poems and 1919, the word "yo no naka" appears again, and the call is directed at people living in the world of delusion.
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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