Mikusa nomi shigeki nigori to mishikadomo sate mo tsuki sumu e ni koso arikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

水草のみ繁き濁りと見しかども
さても月澄むえにこそありけれ

Roma-ji: Mikusa nomi shigeki nigori to mishikadomo sate mo tsuki sumu e ni koso arikere
English Translation: Choked with water weeds,
murky water, so I thought
when I looked on it,
yet it was an inlet still
where the moon shines clear
Meaning: I had taken it for murky water overgrown with weeds, yet it was an inlet where the moon shines clear, a place bound by ties to the Buddha after all.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1240

Headnote: "Composed on the Bestowal of Prophecy chapter"
This poem was composed on the Bestowal of Prophecy chapter of the Lotus Sutra, in which the four great disciples Kāśyapa, Subhūti, Kātyāyana and Maudgalyāyana are told that they will surely become buddhas. I had seen it as murky water thick with weeds, yet it was an inlet where the moon shines clear, he says. Disciples who had thought themselves clouded by the passions also had the karmic ties to become buddhas, and he likens this to the moon shining clear in an inlet overgrown with water weeds.
The author, "Sueyoshi, Master of the Eastern Capital Office," is Fujiwara no Sueyoshi. A son of Fujiwara no Toshimori, he served as master of the eastern capital office among other posts.
It is the second poem of the series on the chapters of the Lotus Sutra in order.

First line, "mikusa nomi": "mikusa" are plants that grow in water, standing for the passions.
Second line, "shigeki nigori to": "murky water overgrown," a self clouded by delusion.
Third line, "mishikadomo": "shika" is the perfective form of the past "ki" and "domo" an adversative conjunctive particle, "though I saw it so."
Fourth line, "sate mo tsuki sumu": "sate mo" means "even so," and the moon stands for the light of the Buddha's enlightenment. Like "suminureba" in the third line of 1218 in this book, it shows the nature that can become a buddha through the moon clear in the water.
Fifth line, "e ni koso arikere": "e" plays on "e," an inlet, and "e," a karmic tie to the Buddha. "Koso," an emphatic binding particle, closes with "kere," the perfective form of the exclamatory "keri."
Author: Fujiwara no Sueyoshi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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