後れじと思へど死なぬ我が身かな
ひとりや知らぬ道を行くらん
ひとりや知らぬ道を行くらん
- Roma-ji
-
Okureji to omoedo shinanu waga mi kana hitori ya shiranu michi o yukuran
- English Translation
-
Not to be left behind
is my wish, yet I do not die,
this body of mine:
are you all alone now, walking
a road that no one knows?
- Meaning
- I wish not to be left behind, yet I do not die. Are you now walking all alone along that unknown road?
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Poems of Lament 553
Headnote: "Composed when someone close to me died"
Composed when someone close to the poet died. I wish not to be left behind, yet I do not die, he says; is that person walking alone along an unknown road? He overlays his helplessness at being unable to follow, however he may wish to, with compassion for the dead traveling the road to the underworld alone.
The author, "the Monk Dōmyō," was the son of Major Captain of the Right Fujiwara no Michitsuna. A Tendai monk who served as superintendent of Tennōji, he was famed for his beautiful voice in sutra chanting. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages.
First line, "okureji to": "ji" is the negative volitional, "I will not be left behind." Poem 598 of this book speaks of the grief of being left behind in "okurete mo mata kanashikarikeri."
Second line, "omoedo shinanu": the concessive "do" and "nu," the attributive of the negative "zu," "I think so, yet I do not die."
Third line, "waga mi kana": the exclamatory "kana," and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "hitori ya": the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "shiranu michi o yukuran": "shiranu michi" is the road of death that no one yet knows. The present conjectural "ran" means "is he walking it now?"
- Author
- Dōmyō
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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Sakurabana miru ni mo kanashi nakanaka ni kotoshi no haru wa sakazu zo aramashi
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Oiraku no inochi no amari nagaku shite kimi ni futatabi wakarenuru kana