はかなしな憂き身ながらも過ぎぬべき
この世をさへも忍びかぬらん
この世をさへも忍びかぬらん
- Roma-ji
-
Hakanashi na uki mi nagara mo suginu beki kono yo o sae mo shinobikanuran
- English Translation
-
How fleeting it is!
Though a wretched self, I know
this world will pass by,
yet why is it I cannot
endure even this brief world?
- Meaning
- How fleeting it all is! This world will surely pass by even for one as wretched as I, so why is it that I cannot bear even this?
- Commentary
-
Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1029
Headnote: "Composed on the theme of expressing one's feelings"
Like the preceding poem, this one was composed on the theme of expressing one's feelings. How fleeting! Why can I not endure even this world, which must pass even for a wretched self, he asks. Since the world will soon pass away in any case, one ought to be able to bear it, yet he cannot even do that; lamenting his own weakness, he sings of awareness of transience and a heart that cannot resign itself.
The author, "Priest Kyōin," was a monk of the late Heian period whose biography is not known in detail.
This is the last of the poems of grievance that continued from 1024 of this book. Together with the preceding poem, 1028, it is one of the poems lamenting a sorrowful life.
First line, "hakanashi na": "na" is an exclamatory particle, "how fleeting." The poem pauses here.
Second line, "uki mi nagara mo": "though a wretched self." It answers "uki yori hoka no" in the fourth line of the preceding poem, 1028.
Third line, "suginu beki": "nu" is the perfective and "beki" the attributive of the conjectural "beshi," "that must surely pass."
Fourth line, "kono yo o sae mo": "sae" is an additive particle, "even this fleeting world."
Fifth line, "shinobikanuran": "kanu" means unable to, and "ran" conjectures a cause, "why can I not endure it?"
- Author
- Kyōin
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Sugikinishi yosoji no haru no yume no yo wa uki yori hoka no omoiide zo naki
- Next Poem
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Yukusue o omoeba kanashi Tsu no kuni no Nagara no hashi mo na wa nokorikeri