世の中はみな仏なりおしなべて
いづれのものと分くぞはかなき
いづれのものと分くぞはかなき
- Roma-ji
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Yo no naka wa mina hotoke nari oshinabete izure no mono to waku zo hakanaki
- English Translation
-
All in this world
is nothing but the Buddha;
all alike, to say
this thing here and that thing there,
how vain it is to divide
- Meaning
- Everything in this world is the Buddha. To sort them all into this one and that one is an empty thing to do.
- Commentary
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Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1204
Headnote: "Composed on contemplating the Tathāgata in his three bodies"
This poem was composed on contemplating the Buddha in his three bodies, the dharma body, the reward body and the manifested body. All in this world is the Buddha; to divide things alike into this and that is vain, he says. The Buddha's body is taught in three aspects, yet in truth all things are the Buddha, and it is the act of drawing distinctions that is empty, so the poem sings of an enlightenment beyond all discrimination.
The author, "Poem of Retired Emperor Kazan," is a composition of Kazan, the first son of Emperor Reizei, who became the sixty-fifth emperor. He took the tonsure after only two years on the throne, later devoted himself to poetry, and is said to have had a hand in the making of the Shūi Wakashū.
First line, "yo no naka wa": "everything in this world."
Second line, "mina hotoke nari": "all is the Buddha," and the poem pauses here.
Third line, "oshinabete": "all alike, uniformly."
Fourth line, "izure no mono to": "this one or that one," referring to distinguishing the three bodies of the Buddha.
Fifth line, "waku zo hakanaki": "waku" means to divide, and "zo," an emphatic binding particle, closes with "hakanaki," the attributive of the adjective "hakanashi." It shares "waku" with "wakite mo" in the second line of the next poem, 1205.
- Author
- Retired Emperor Kazan
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Sadame naki mi wa ukigumo ni yosoetsutsu hate wa sore ni zo narihatenubeki
- Next Poem
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Ōzora no ame wa wakite mo sosoganedo uruou kusaki wa ono ga shinajina