世の中に牛の車のなかりせば
思ひの家をいかで出でまし
思ひの家をいかで出でまし
- Roma-ji
-
Yo no naka ni ushi no kuruma no nakariseba omoi no ie o ikade idemashi
- English Translation
-
If in this world of ours
there had been no ox-drawn cart,
then from the burning house
of our desires, how could we
ever have made our way out?
- Meaning
- If there were no ox-drawn carts in this world, how could we ever escape from this house burning with the fire of our desires?
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Lament Poems 1331
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet asks how, if there were no ox carts in the world, one could escape the house of longing. Drawing on the parable of the burning house in the Simile and Parable chapter of the Lotus Sutra, in which a father lures his children playing in a house burning with the fire of passions out by promising ox carts and so saves them, it lays over this the escape from the world of delusion through the Buddha's teaching. Pivoting "omoi," longing, on "hi," fire, it sings of gratitude for the Buddha's salvation.
It draws on the parable of the three carts and the burning house in the Simile and Parable chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
First line, "yo no naka ni," means "in this world."
Second line, "ushi no kuruma no," means "ox-drawn carts," the ox carts of the parable of the burning house, standing for the Buddha's teaching.
Third line, "nakariseba," means "if there had been none," with "se" taken as the irrealis form of the past auxiliary "ki," expressing counterfactual supposition.
Fourth line, "omoi no ie o," pivots "hi" in "omoi" on "fire," meaning a house burning with the fire of passions, the world of delusion.
Final line, "ikade idemashi," means "how could we have left," with "mashi" the auxiliary of counterfactual supposition answering "seba" in the third line.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
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Ukiyo o ba somukaba kyō mo somukinan asu mo ari to wa tanomubeki mi ka
- Next Poem
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Yo no naka ni furu zo hakanaki shirayuki no katsu wa kienuru mono to shirushiru