山寺の入相の鐘の声ごとに
今日も暮れぬと聞くぞ悲しき
今日も暮れぬと聞くぞ悲しき
- Roma-ji
-
Yamadera no iriai no kane no koe goto ni kyō mo kurenu to kiku zo kanashiki
- English Translation
-
From the mountain temple,
the evening bell, each time
its voice rings out,
I hear, "Today too has ended,"
and how sorrowful it is.
- Meaning
- Each time the evening bell of the mountain temple rings, I hear it say that today too has come to an end, and that is sad.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Lament Poems 1329
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that each time the evening bell of the mountain temple sounds, it is sad to hear that today too has ended. In the bell announcing nightfall, the poet senses time passing day by day and life running out with it, and sings of the sorrow of impermanence. It is famous as a poem of the evening temple bell.
From about this point in the book, poems lamenting impermanence give way to poems of taking vows and of the Buddhist path, and toward the end of the book come poems from Buddhist legend.
First line, "yamadera no," means "of the mountain temple."
Second line, "iriai no kane no," means "of the bell rung at dusk" at the temple.
Third line, "koe goto ni," means "each time it sounds."
Fourth line, "kyō mo kurenu to," means "that today too has ended," with "nu" a perfective auxiliary, laying the close of a day over the drawing near of life's end.
Final line, "kiku zo kanashiki," means "it is sad to hear," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "kanashiki," the attributive form of the adjective. It shares this line with the final lines of 1278 and 1305 in this book.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Chigiri areba kabane naredomo ainuru o ware o ba tare ka towan to suran
- Next Poem
-
Ukiyo o ba somukaba kyō mo somukinan asu mo ari to wa tanomubeki mi ka