大空の雨は分きてもそそがねど
潤ふ草木はおのがしなじな
潤ふ草木はおのがしなじな
- Roma-ji
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Ōzora no ame wa wakite mo sosoganedo uruou kusaki wa ono ga shinajina
- English Translation
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Rain from the great sky
does not choose where it will fall
as it pours on all,
yet the grasses and trees it soaks
each thrive after their own kind
- Meaning
- The rain from the great sky does not pick and choose where it falls, yet the grasses and trees it moistens each grow in their own different ways.
- Commentary
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Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1205
Headnote: "Composed on the Parable of the Medicinal Herbs chapter of the Lotus Sutra"
This poem was composed on the Parable of the Medicinal Herbs chapter of the Lotus Sutra. The chapter tells of rain falling from a single cloud that moistens grasses and trees great and small alike, while each grows according to its own nature, showing that though the Buddha's teaching is one, what beings gain from it differs with their capacity. The rain from the great sky does not choose where it falls, yet the grasses and trees it moistens differ each from each, he says. He gathers the sutra's parable into a single poem in plain words.
The author, "Bishop Genshin," was a Tendai monk of the mid-Heian period, known as the Eshin Sōzu. He wrote the Ōjōyōshū, which had a great influence on the spread of Pure Land teaching.
First line, "Ōzora no": "of the great sky," likening the vastness of the Buddha's teaching to the sky.
Second line, "ame wa wakite mo": "waku" means to divide, and the rain stands for the Buddha's teaching. It shares "waku" with "waku zo hakanaki" in the fifth line of the preceding poem, 1204; that poem sings of the vanity of drawing distinctions, this one of rain that falls without them.
Third line, "sosoganedo": "ne" is the perfective form of the negative "zu" and "do" an adversative conjunctive particle, "though it does not pour by choice."
Fourth line, "uruou kusaki wa": "the grasses and trees moistened by the rain," standing for the beings who receive the teaching.
Fifth line, "ono ga shinajina": "each after its own kind," closing on a noun.
- Author
- Genshin
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Yo no naka wa mina hotoke nari oshinabete izure no mono to waku zo hakanaki
- Next Poem
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Motomete mo kakaru hachisu no tsuyu o okite ukiyo ni mata wa kaeru mono ka wa