長き夜もむなしき物と知りぬれば
早く明けぬる心地こそすれ
早く明けぬる心地こそすれ
- Roma-ji
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Nagaki yo mo munashiki mono to shirinureba hayaku akenuru kokochi koso sure
- English Translation
-
Once I understand
that the long night too is
an empty thing,
it feels as if already
the dawn has broken through
- Meaning
- Once I have come to know that even the long night is empty, it feels as though dawn has broken already.
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1230
Headnote: "Composed on the line of the Lotus Sutra, through the long night we practiced the teaching of emptiness"
This poem was composed on the line of the Belief and Understanding chapter of the Lotus Sutra, "through the long night we practiced and learned the teaching of emptiness." When I know the long night too is empty, it feels as if dawn has come early, he says. The "long night" of the sutra is the long age of delusion. Once one realizes that this long night too is empty, the darkness of delusion lifts at once, and it feels like greeting the morning of enlightenment.
The author, "Former Middle Counselor Moronaka," is Minamoto no Moronaka. A son of the Provisional Middle Counselor Minamoto no Morotoki, he rose to provisional middle counselor. He was exiled for his part in the Heiji Disturbance.
Taking up "munashiki" in the preceding poem, 1229, it continues the series of poems on the teaching of emptiness.
First line, "nagaki yo mo": "nagaki yo" renders the sutra's "long night" in native words, the long age of delusion.
Second line, "munashiki mono to": "a thing that is empty," taking up "munashiki mo" in the first line of the preceding poem, 1229.
Third line, "shirinureba": "nure" is the perfective form of the perfective "nu," "once I have come to know."
Fourth line, "hayaku akenuru": "the dawn has already broken," likening enlightenment to daybreak. It pairs with "nagaki yo," the long night, of the first line.
Fifth line, "kokochi koso sure": "koso," an emphatic binding particle, closes with the perfective form "sure."
- Author
- Minamoto no Moronaka
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Munashiki mo iro naru mono to satore to ya haru no misora no midori naruran
- Next Poem
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Washi no yama tsuki o irinu to miru hito wa kuraki ni mayou kokoro narikeri