山里は物の惨慄き事こそあれ
世の憂きよりは住みよかりけり
世の憂きよりは住みよかりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Yamazato wa mono no sabishiki koto koso are yo no uki yori wa sumiyokarikeri
- English Translation
-
In a mountain village
there are lonely things enough,
it is true, and yet,
compared to the world's sorrows,
it is a better place to live.
- Meaning
- A mountain village has its share of loneliness, it is true; but compared with the sorrows of the world, it is a far easier place to live.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 944
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Admitting the loneliness of mountain life, the poem still finds it easier to live in than the painful world. Weighing loneliness against the world's sorrows, it discovers peace of mind in the mountain village.
Poems longing to leave the world and live in the mountains continue in this book from 950 to 954, and this poem serves as their forerunner.
The author is recorded as anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.
The first line, "in a mountain village," raises the mountain village, set against the capital, as the theme.
The second line, "there are lonely things enough," is written in the text with the unusual characters 惨慄, which the reading line glosses as sabishiki, "lonely."
The third line, "it is true, and yet," uses koso with the perfective form are to create a concessive link to the lower verse.
The fourth line, "compared to the world's sorrows," sets up the comparison.
The last line, "it is a better place to live," ends with the exclamatory keri.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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