Tanomoshi na yoi akatsuki no kane no oto mono omou tsumi mo tsukizarame ya wa

頼もしな宵暁の鐘の音
物思ふ罪もつきざらめやは

Roma-ji: Tanomoshi na yoi akatsuki no kane no oto mono omou tsumi mo tsukizarame ya wa
English Translation: How reassuring!
at dusk and at the dawn, the
sound of the temple bell:
the sin of brooding on love,
how could it not be struck away?
Meaning: How reassuring is the sound of the temple bell at dusk and at dawn! How could even the sin of brooding over love not be struck away and come to an end?
Commentary: Love Poems 711

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
How reassuring is the sound of the temple bell struck at dusk and at dawn! Hearing it, how could the sin of brooding over love remain without coming to an end? Surely it will fade away. In Buddhism the attachment of love counts as sin, and in the bell that calls to worship the poet finds the salvation of that sin fading away. Tsuki joins the ending of sin with the striking of the bell.
This poem closes the love section. After the two preceding poems feared that the pain of love would reach into the next life, this one ends on a hope of salvation through the sound of the bell. Where 578 at the head of the book sang of the beginning of a love that seeks out someone known only by name, the book ends with a prayer that the sin of love may come to an end, portraying in a single book the course from love's beginning to the search for salvation in the Buddhist way.

First line, “tanomoshi na”: tanomoshi is reassuring, and na exclamatory; the poem breaks after the first line.
Second line, “yoi akatsuki no”: of dusk and dawn, the hours when the temple bell is struck to call to worship.
Third line, “kane no oto”: the sound of the temple bell, the subject of tanomoshi na in an inversion; the poem breaks here too.
Fourth line, “mono omou tsumi mo”: the sin of brooding over love; in Buddhism the attachment of love was counted a sin.
Fifth line, “tsukizarame ya wa”: tsuki is a pivot word joining the ending of sin with the striking of the bell; me ya wa is rhetorical: how could it not end? Surely it will.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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