Moda orite sakashira suru wa sake nomite einaki suru ni nao shikazukeri

黙居りて賢しらするは酒飲みて
酔ひ泣きするになほしかずけり

Roma-ji: Moda orite sakashira suru wa sake nomite einaki suru ni nao shikazukeri
English Translation: Sitting there in silence,
acting clever and wise—
to drink down the wine
and weep in drunken tears, still,
that, I find, it cannot match.
Meaning: Keeping silent and acting wise is, after all, no match for drinking sake and weeping drunken tears.
Commentary: Book Three Miscellaneous Poems 350

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirteen poems in praise of sake by the Governor-General of Dazaifu, Lord Ōtomo"
This is the thirteenth of the thirteen poems in praise of sake by the Governor-General Lord Ōtomo. Closing the sequence, it concludes that drinking and weeping in one's cups is after all better than sitting silent and looking wise. Taking up "drunken weeping" from the fourth and tenth poems and echoing the criticism of "cleverness" in the seventh, it gathers the themes of the sequence.
The thirteen poems in praise of sake form a sequence in which Tabito, at Dazaifu, extols wine as a way of rejecting worldly cleverness and consoling life's sorrows, drawing on Chinese precedents such as the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.
The poet, Ōtomo no Tabito, was a son of Ōtomo no Yasumaro. He served as Middle Counselor and Governor-General of Dazaifu before rising to Great Counselor, and died in Tenpyō 3 (731). Steeped in Chinese letters, he was at the center of a poetic circle with Yamanoue no Okura and others while serving in Tsukushi.

First line "Sitting there in silence": moda means keeping silent.
Second line "acting clever and wise" uses the same word, sakashira, as the seventh poem of the sequence.
Third line "to drink down the wine" means drinking sake.
Fourth line "and weep in drunken tears" uses the same word as the fourth and tenth poems.
Fifth line "that, I find, it cannot match": shiku means to equal and keri voices realization, closing the sequence with its conclusion.
Author: Ōtomo no Tabito
Source: Manyoshu
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