朽ち果てて危ふく見えしをばただの
板田の橋も今渡すなり
板田の橋も今渡すなり
- Roma-ji
-
Kuchihatete ayauku mieshi Obatada no Itada no hashi mo ima watasu nari
- English Translation
-
Rotted through and through,
it looked so perilous,
at Obatada
the Itada bridge as well
is now laid across once more
- Meaning
- Even the Itada bridge at Obatada, which looked so rotted and unsafe, is now being laid across again.
- Commentary
-
Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1243
Headnote: "Composed on the Kanji chapter"
This poem was composed on the Encouraging Devotion chapter of the Lotus Sutra; the "Kanji chapter" of the headnote is that chapter. In it the bodhisattvas vow that even in the evil age after the Buddha's passing they will endure every persecution to spread the Lotus Sutra. Even the Itada bridge at Obatada, which looked rotted and unsafe, is now being laid across, he says. He likens the latter age, when the Buddha's Law has declined, to a bridge rotting away, and the vow to spread the sutra to rebuilding that bridge and carrying people over to the other shore.
The author, "Hokkyō Taikaku," was a monk of the late Heian period who held the rank of hokkyō, but the details of his life are not known.
It is the fifth poem of the series on the chapters of the Lotus Sutra in order, and the next poem, 1244, also treats the Encouraging Devotion chapter.
First line, "kuchihatete": "rotted through," standing for the latter age in which the Law has declined. It shares its words with "kuchihatsuru" in the first line of 1233 in this book.
Second line, "ayauku mieshi": "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," "that had looked unsafe."
Third line, "Obatada no": Obatada, a place in Yamato, running on to "Itada no hashi" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "Itada no hashi mo": the Itada bridge stood at Obatada and is a poetic place long sung of as a bridge on the verge of rotting away.
Fifth line, "ima watasu nari": "watasu" overlays laying a bridge across with carrying beings over to the shore of enlightenment. "Nari" is the copula.
- Author
- Taikaku
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Tanimizu o musubeba utsuru kage nomi ya chitose o okuru tomo to nariken
- Next Poem
-
Uramikeru keshiki ya sora ni mietsuran Obasuteyama o terasu tsukikage