Hitotabi mo Namu Amida Butsu to iu hito no hachisu no ue ni noboranu wa nashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

一度も南無阿弥陀仏と言ふ人の
蓮の上に登らぬはなし

Roma-ji: Hitotabi mo Namu Amida Butsu to iu hito no hachisu no ue ni noboranu wa nashi
English Translation: Whoever says,
if only once, "Namu Amida
Butsu," there is none
who will fail to rise and sit
upon the lotus flower.
Meaning: Of all who say "Namu Amida Butsu" even once, there is no one who will not rise to sit upon the lotus of paradise.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1344

Headnote: "Written on the gate of the marketplace"
The poet says that of all who say "Namu Amida Butsu" even once, there is none who will not rise upon the lotus. The headnote shows it was written on the gate of the marketplace. On the gate where people gathered, he wrote in plain words that anyone can be reborn in paradise by calling the Buddha's name just once, urging the nembutsu widely on the common people. Following the preceding poem, 1343, it is a poem of rebirth in paradise.
The author, the Holy Man Kūya, was a priest of the mid-Heian period. He spread the nembutsu through the provinces and urged it in the streets of the capital, and so was called the Holy Man of the Market and the Holy Man of Amida.

First line, "hitotabi mo," means "even once."
Second line, "Namu Amida Butsu to," means "the words of the nembutsu," taking refuge in Amida Buddha, setting the sacred name itself into a line of seven syllables.
Third line, "iu hito no," means "of those who say it."
Fourth line, "hachisu no ue ni," means "upon the lotus" of paradise, sharing rebirth in paradise with the fourth line of 1340 in this book, "hachisu no ue no."
Final line, "noboranu wa nashi," means "there is none who will not rise," the double negative stressing that rebirth is sure.
Author: Kūya
Source: Shui Wakashu
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