世の中はいづれかさしてわがならむ
行きとまるをぞ宿と定むる
行きとまるをぞ宿と定むる
- Roma-ji
-
Yo no naka wa izure ka sashite waga naramu yuki tomaru o zo yado to sadamuru
- English Translation
-
In this world of ours,
which place can I point to
and call it my own?
Wherever I go and stop
there I make my lodging.
- Meaning
- In this world, which place can I point to and call my own? Wherever I happen to stop on my way, that is where I make my lodging.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 987
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that there is no fixed place in this world one can call one's own; one can only lodge wherever one happens to stop. It overlaps the heart of a traveler with no settled home with the view that this world is only a temporary dwelling.
Together with the following poems, 988 and 989, it forms a group about a self whose destination is uncertain.
The author is recorded as anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.
The first line, "in this world of ours," is the same opening as the first poem of this book, 933.
The second line, "which place can I point to," uses the interrogative ka, answered by the attributive mu in the third line.
The third line, "and call it my own?", ends the upper verse with a break.
The fourth line, "wherever I go and stop," uses zo, answered by the attributive at the end.
The last line, "there I make my lodging," uses sadamuru, the attributive of a lower bigrade verb, completing the zo construction.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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