今日過ぎぬ命もしかと驚かす
入相の鐘の声ぞ悲しき
入相の鐘の声ぞ悲しき
- Roma-ji
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Kyō suginu inochi mo shika to odorokasu iriai no kane no koe zo kanashiki
- English Translation
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Today has passed by—
and life, too, just so, it wakes me
startled to this truth:
the sunset bell that tolls,
how sorrowful its voice.
- Meaning
- Today has passed, and life, too, wanes just so—the sunset bell that startles me into this knowing sounds so sorrowful.
- Commentary
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Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1955
Headnote: "This day has already passed; life, accordingly, wanes."
This is the fifth poem in the sequence of poems from the Hundred Poems on Buddhist Texts by Jakuzen and others. The poet finds sorrowful the evening bell that wakes him to the thought: today has passed, and life too is waning just so. According to the headnote, it was composed on the meaning of "This day has already passed; life, accordingly, wanes."
In the bell that marks the end of the day, he is made to realize that life runs out day by day, and deeply laments impermanence.
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.
The iriai bell is the bell struck at temples around sunset; it marks the end of the day and is sung of as a reminder of impermanence.
The first line, "kyō suginu," declares with the perfective "nu" that today too has passed. It gently transposes the scripture's "This day has already passed," and the poem breaks after it.
The second line, "inochi mo shika to," means "life too, just so," taking up the scripture's "life, accordingly, wanes" and overlaying the passing of a day with the waning of life.
The third line, "odorokasu," means "startles into awareness," the bell's sound bringing home impermanence.
The fourth line, "iriai no kane no," is the bell at sunset, overlaying the end of the day with the end of life.
The last line, "koe zo kanashiki," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "kanashiki." The arrangement moves from the morning mist of the preceding poem to the evening bell of this one.
- Author
- Jakuzen
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Yami fukaki ko no moto goto ni chigiri okite asa tatsu kiri no ato no tsuyukesa
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Kusa fukaki kariba no ono o tachiidete tomo madowaseru shika zo naku naru