Murasaki no kumoji ni sasou koto no ne ni ukiyo o harau mine no matsukaze - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

紫の雲路にさそふ琴の音に
憂き世をはらふ峰の松風

Roma-ji: Murasaki no kumoji ni sasou koto no ne ni ukiyo o harau mine no matsukaze
English Translation: Along the path of
purple clouds, the koto calls;
with the music's sound,
sweeping away this sad world,
blows the pine wind on the peak.
Meaning: To the sound of a koto beckoning along the path of purple clouds, the pine wind on the peak sweeps this sorrowful world away.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1937

Headnote: "For the hundred-poem sequence at the Regent-Chancellor's house, when the Ten Pleasures were composed on, the Pleasure of Welcome by the Holy Host."
This is the first poem in the sequence on the Ten Pleasures of paradise. It sings of the pine wind on the peak echoing the music of a koto that beckons along the path of purple clouds, as if sweeping away this sorrowful world. According to the headnote, it was composed on the Pleasure of Welcome by the Holy Host when the Ten Pleasures were treated in a hundred-poem sequence at the house of Fujiwara no Yoshitsune.
It portrays the joy of the welcome at death, when Amida Buddha and the bodhisattvas come playing music, through the sound of the koto and the sighing of the pine wind.
The author, "Jakuren Hōshi," was named Fujiwara no Sadanaga as a layman. A nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he became Shunzei's adopted son. After taking vows he remained active as a poet and was appointed a compiler of the Shin Kokinshū, but died before its completion.
The Ten Pleasures are the ten joys received by those reborn in paradise, as set out in Genshin's Ōjō Yōshū. The Pleasure of Welcome by the Holy Host is the joy of Amida Buddha coming with a retinue of bodhisattvas to welcome one at death.
Pairing the koto's sound with the pine wind on the peak has a precedent in the poem by the Saigū Nyōgo, Princess Kishi: "Koto no ne ni / mine no matsukaze / kayourashi / izure no o yori / shirabesomeken" (Shūi Wakashū).

The first line, "murasaki no," shows the purple clouds that trail at the welcome. Using the same words as the "purple clouds" of 1929 in this book, it opens the scene of the welcome from paradise.
The second line, "kumoji ni sasou," means "beckoning along the path of purple clouds," expressing the welcome that leads the dying toward paradise.
The third line, "koto no ne ni," lets the koto stand for the music played by the holy host.
The fourth line, "ukiyo o harau," means the pine wind sweeps away the dust of the sorrowful world, overlaid with the dispelling of this world's delusions by the welcome.
The last line, "mine no matsukaze," ends on a noun. The traditional conceit of hearing the pine wind on the peak as koto music is turned into the music of the welcome.
Author: Jakuren
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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