極楽へまだわが心行きつかず
羊の歩みしばしとどまれ
羊の歩みしばしとどまれ
- Roma-ji
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Gokuraku e mada waga kokoro yukitsukazu hitsuji no ayumi shibashi todomare
- English Translation
-
Unto paradise
my heart has not yet journeyed—
has not yet arrived;
O the steps of the led sheep,
halt for a while, stay a while.
- Meaning
- My heart has not yet reached paradise; O sheep's steps that lead me toward death, pause for a while.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1933
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "From among his poems of personal reflection."
This is the fourth poem in the sequence of reflections on reading the sutras and pondering the Law, closing that sequence. Because his heart has not yet reached paradise, the poet begs the sheep's steps that draw him toward death to pause a while. The headnote continues from the preceding poem: one of his poems of personal reflection.
Aware that each day brings him nearer to death, he laments that his heart is not yet prepared for rebirth and treasures the time that remains.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Saki no Daisōjō Jien, a Tendai monk, son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as head abbot of the Tendai school and wrote the historical work Gukanshō.
"The sheep's steps" means drawing nearer to death with every step, like a sheep led to the slaughterhouse, and is based on a simile in the Nirvana Sutra.
The first line, "gokuraku e," sets out at once the destination of rebirth.
The second line, "mada waga kokoro," says that it is not the body but the heart that has not yet fully turned toward paradise.
The third line, "yukitsukazu," means "has not arrived," and the poem breaks after it.
The fourth line, "hitsuji no ayumi," is the gait of a sheep led to slaughter, a figure for the self drawing nearer to death moment by moment. It is a simile from the Nirvana Sutra named in the headnote to 1930, echoing the start of the sequence.
The last line, "shibashi todomare," calls out in the imperative for the steps to halt. While the preceding poem wishes to vanish like morning dew, this poem asks death to wait until the heart is ready, revealing the wavering of one heart.
- Author
- Jien
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Toku mino kiku no shiratsuyu yoru wa okite tsutomete kien koto o shi zo omou
- Next Poem
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Waga kokoro nao hareyaranu akigiri ni honoka ni miyuru ariake no tsuki