雲晴れて空しき空にすみながら
憂き世の中をめぐる月かな
憂き世の中をめぐる月かな
- Roma-ji
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Kumo harete munashiki sora ni suminagara ukiyo no naka o meguru tsuki kana
- English Translation
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The clouds having cleared,
in the empty sky it dwells,
shining clear, and yet
through this sorrowful world
it circles on—ah, the moon!
- Meaning
- With the clouds cleared, the moon dwells shining in the empty sky, and yet it circles on through this sorrowful world.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1952
Headnote: "The cool moon of the bodhisattva roams in ultimate emptiness."
This is the second poem in the sequence of poems from the Hundred Poems on Buddhist Texts by Jakuzen and others. It sings of the moon that, clear and dwelling in the sky swept of clouds, still circles through the sorrowful world. According to the headnote, it was composed on the meaning of "The cool moon of the bodhisattva roams in ultimate emptiness."
It praises the bodhisattva, who unites awakening and salvation—remaining in the realization of emptiness while traveling through this world to save living beings—by likening him to the moon crossing the sky.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Jakuzen Hōshi, who, whose lay name was Fujiwara no Yorinari, was a son of Fujiwara no Tametada. With his elder brothers Jakunen and Jakuchō he lived in retirement at Ōhara, and the three were called the Three Jaku of Ōhara. He was a close friend of Saigyō.
Ultimate emptiness means that all things are, in the final analysis, empty.
The first line, "kumo harete," shows the clouds of defilement cleared away, contrasting with the darkness of the "dusk-dark sky" in the preceding poem.
The second line, "munashiki sora ni," gently transposes the scripture's "ultimate emptiness," a phrase also found in 1944 of this book.
In the third line, "suminagara," "sumi" is a pivot word joining "shining clear" in the sky and "dwelling" in the sky. The particle "nagara" links it adversatively to the lower half.
The fourth line, "ukiyo no naka o," is the deluded world where living beings live. Dwelling in the sky yet circling this world, it shows the two sides of the bodhisattva.
The last line, "meguru tsuki kana," closes with the exclamatory "kana." The moon's course across the sky is overlaid with the bodhisattva's work of traveling the world to save beings. Against the faint firefly light of the preceding poem, this moon's light illuminates the whole world.
- Author
- Jakuzen
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Michinobe no hotaru bakari o shirube nite hitori zo izuru yūyami no sora
- Next Poem
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Fuku kaze ni hanatachibana ya niouran mukashi oboyuru kyō no niwa kana