思ひかねあくがれ出でてゆく道は
あゆく草葉に露ぞこぼるる
あゆく草葉に露ぞこぼるる
- Roma-ji
-
Omoikane akugare idete yuku michi wa ayuku kusaba ni tsuyu zo koboruru
- English Translation
-
Unable to bear it,
I wander out of myself
along the road I go,
and on the swaying grasses
the dewdrops spill and fall
- Meaning
- Unable to bear my thoughts, I wander out upon the road, and on the trembling grass along the way the dew spills down.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1122
Headnote: "Composed when I was traveling about in religious practice"
This poem was composed while he was traveling through the provinces in Buddhist practice. On the road I wander out upon, unable to bear my thoughts, the dew spills on the swaying grass, he says. Unable to contain his weariness of the world, he set out on a journey of practice, and each time the grass along the road sways, dew spills from it. In that dew he lays the tears that fall from the loneliness of travel and from a heart that cannot wholly let go of the world.
The author, "the monk Kakuzen," was a monk of the late Heian period whose biography is not known in detail.
Like 1107 of this book, it sings of the road on a journey of religious practice.
First line, "omoikane": "unable to bear my thoughts."
Second line, "akugare idete": "akugaru" means for the spirit to leave the body and wander, and so to go out aimlessly, "wandering out."
Third line, "yuku michi wa": "on the road I go."
Fourth line, "ayuku kusaba ni": "ayuku" means to sway, "on the swaying blades of grass."
Fifth line, "tsuyu zo koboruru": "zo" is an emphatic binding particle closing with the attributive "koboruru." The dew is overlaid with tears.
- Author
- Kakuzen
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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