わが庵は都の辰巳しかぞ住む
世をうぢ山と人はいふなり
世をうぢ山と人はいふなり
- Roma-ji
-
Waga io wa miyako no tatsumi shika zo sumu yo o ujiyama to hito wa iu nari
- English Translation
-
My humble hermitage
lies southeast of the capital;
thus I live at ease,
yet "Ujiyama, weary of the world,"
is what people call it, I hear.
- Meaning
- My hut lies southeast of the capital, and there I live just so, at peace. Yet people, I hear, call it Mount Uji, the mountain of one weary of the world.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 983
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Living in a hut on Mount Uji, southeast of the capital, the poet says that although he lives there calmly, people seem to say he has hidden himself away out of weariness with the world. A pun linking Uji with ushi, "weary, bitter," lightly shows the gap between how the world sees him and how he feels.
This famous poem was also included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, and it shares the opening line "my hermitage" with the previous poem, 982.
The author, "Kisen Hōshi" as written in kana, is the monk Kisen, one of the Six Poetic Immortals. Almost nothing is known of his life, and this is said to be the only poem that can be attributed to him with certainty.
The first line, "my humble hermitage," is the same opening as the previous poem.
The second line, "southeast of the capital," uses tatsumi, the direction named by two zodiac signs, pointing toward Uji.
The third line, "thus I live at ease," uses shika, "thus"; some read it also as "deer." Zo governs the attributive sumu, and the poem breaks here.
The fourth line contains the pivot word uji, the place name Uji and ushi, "weary of the world."
The last line, "is what people call it, I hear," uses nari to express hearsay.
- Author
- The Monk Kisen
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Waga io wa miwa no yamamoto koishiku wa toburai kimase sugi tateru kado
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Arenikeri aware ikuyo no yado nare ya sumikemu hito no otozure mo senu