清く澄む心の底を鏡にて
やがてぞ映る色も姿も
やがてぞ映る色も姿も
- Roma-ji
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Kiyoku sumu kokoro no soko o kagami nite yagate zo utsuru iro mo sugata mo
- English Translation
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The depths of a heart
so pure and clear and still
serving as a mirror,
there, just as they are, appear
color and form alike
- Meaning
- With the depths of a pure, clear heart for a mirror, everything is reflected there just as it is, color and form alike.
- Commentary
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Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1250
Headnote: "Composed on the line of the Nirvana Sutra, as one sees all forms and images in a mirror"
This poem was composed on the line of the Nirvana Sutra, "as one sees all forms and images within a mirror." With the depths of a pure, clear heart as a mirror, color and form are reflected just as they are, he says. He likens the working of the enlightened heart to a mirror, saying that a pure heart reflects all things as they truly are.
The author, "Shunshū Hōshi," was a monk of the late Heian period, but the details of his life are not known.
Where 1218 in this book likens the heart to water that mirrors the moon, this poem likens the heart to a mirror that reflects both color and form.
First line, "kiyoku sumu": "pure and clear," the purity of the heart.
Second line, "kokoro no soko o": "the depths of the heart."
Third line, "kagami nite": "as a mirror," likening the heart to a mirror.
Fourth line, "yagate zo utsuru": "yagate" means just as it is, and "zo," an emphatic binding particle, closes with the attributive "utsuru." The poem pauses here. It is the same word as in "yagate kono mi ni" in the fourth line of 1218 in this book.
Fifth line, "iro mo sugata mo": "color and form alike," taking up the sutra's "all forms and images." By inversion it gives the subject of the fourth line.
- Author
- Shunshū
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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