いにしへの鹿鳴く野辺の庵にも
心の月は曇らざりけん
心の月は曇らざりけん
- Roma-ji
-
Inishie no shika naku nobe no iori ni mo kokoro no tsuki wa kumorazariken
- English Translation
-
Long ago, even
on the moor where the deer cried,
in a humble hut,
surely the moon of the heart
was never clouded over.
- Meaning
- Long ago, even in a hut on the moor where the deer cried, the moon of his heart must never have been clouded.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1950
Headnote: "On the meaning of 'Inwardly he conceals the practice of a bodhisattva,' from the Five Hundred Disciples chapter."
This is the sixth poem in the sequence of poems by various poets on phrases from the scriptures, closing that sequence. Even long ago, in a hut on the moor where deer cried, the moon of the heart must not have been clouded. According to the headnote, it was composed on the meaning of "Inwardly he conceals the practice of a bodhisattva" from the Five Hundred Disciples chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
It praises the heart of a disciple who outwardly took the form of a voice-hearer while inwardly concealing the practice of a bodhisattva, as a moon shining unclouded even over a hut on the moor.
The author, "Saki no Daisōjō Jien," was 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 Five Hundred Disciples chapter says of the disciple Pūrṇa that inwardly he conceals the practice of a bodhisattva while outwardly he shows the form of a voice-hearer. "The moor where deer cry" suggests the Deer Park, where the Buddha first preached after his awakening.
The first line, "inishie no," points to the distant past, the time when the Buddha lived.
The second line, "shika naku nobe no," is the moor where deer cry, carrying the Deer Park, where the Buddha first preached, into a waka landscape. Crying deer are sung of again in poem 1956.
The third line, "iori ni mo," means "even in a humble hut on the moor," showing practice in the form of a voice-hearer.
The fourth line, "kokoro no tsuki wa," likens the true nature of the mind to the moon, expressing the bodhisattva practice concealed within. Where 1934 in this book sings of the moon of the heart dimmed by mist, the moon of the heart here is unclouded.
The last line, "kumorazariken," closes with the past conjecture "ken," surmising of long ago that it must not have been clouded.
- Author
- Jien
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Fukaki yo no mado utsu ame ni oto senu wa ukiyo o noki no shinobu narikeri
- Next Poem
-
Michinobe no hotaru bakari o shirube nite hitori zo izuru yūyami no sora