Okuyama ni hitori ukiyo wa satoriniki tsune naki iro o kaze ni nagamete - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

奥山にひとり憂き世はさとりにき
常なき色を風にながめて

Roma-ji: Okuyama ni hitori ukiyo wa satoriniki tsune naki iro o kaze ni nagamete
English Translation: Deep in the mountains,
alone, of this sorrowful world
I have come to know,
gazing at the fleeting hues
as they scatter on the wind.
Meaning: Alone deep in the mountains, I have seen through this sorrowful world, gazing at the fleeting colors scattered by the wind.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1935

Headnote: "When a hundred-poem sequence was composed at my house on the meaning of the Ten Realms, on the meaning of the solitary buddha."
This is the second poem in the sequence on phrases from the scriptures and the heart of the teachings. Living alone deep in the mountains and gazing at fleeting colors scattered by the wind, the poet says he has come to understand the impermanence of this sorrowful world. According to the headnote, when a hundred-poem sequence was composed at his house on the meaning of the Ten Realms, this is the poem on the realm of the solitary buddha.
It portrays the state of the pratyekabuddha, who awakens alone with no teacher, taking the changes of nature as his occasion, in the figure of one living deep in the mountains.
The author, "Sesshō Daijō Daijin," is Fujiwara no Yoshitsune. Son of Regent Kujō Kanezane, he rose to regent and chancellor, and wrote the kana preface to the Shin Kokinshū.
The Ten Realms are hell, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans, heavenly beings, voice-hearers, solitary buddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. A solitary buddha, also called a lone awakener, is one who, without a teacher, awakens alone through outward occasions such as falling blossoms and leaves.

The first line, "okuyama ni," is deep in the mountains far from human settlements, the place where the solitary buddha practices alone.
In the second line, "hitori ukiyo wa," "hitori" (alone) expresses the essence of the solitary buddha, who awakens without teacher or companion.
The third line, "satoriniki," states with the perfective "nu" and the past "ki" that he has already awakened. The poem breaks after this line.
The fourth line, "tsune naki iro o," names the fleeting colors of blossoms and autumn leaves, signifying impermanence. The Buddhist sense of "iro" as form also resonates.
The last line, "kaze ni nagamete," means "gazing at the colors scattered by the wind," an inversion returning to the third line. It shows as a scene the solitary buddha awakening through falling blossoms and leaves.
Author: Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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