濁りたる心の水の少なきに
何かは月の影宿るべき
何かは月の影宿るべき
- Roma-ji
-
Nigoritaru kokoro no mizu no sukunaki ni nani ka wa tsuki no kage yadoru beki
- English Translation
-
In the water of
a heart that is muddied so
and so scant as this,
how could the light of the moon
ever come to dwell in it?
- Meaning
- In the water of a heart so muddied and so scant, how could the light of the moon ever come to dwell?
- Commentary
-
Miscellaneous Poems 903
Headnote: "On what I was thinking in my heart"
This sets down what the poet was thinking, and five such poems run from here to 907. How could the light of the moon dwell in a heart so muddied and so scant of water? he asks. The moon is the light of the Buddha's enlightenment, and looking at the murk and shallowness of his own heart, he laments how far he is from it.
First line, “nigoritaru”: muddied, a heart stained by delusion and passion.
Second line, “kokoro no mizu no”: the heart likened to water.
Third line, “sukunaki ni”: where the water is scant, the shallowness of the heart.
Fourth line, “nani ka wa tsuki no”: ka wa is a rhetorical binding particle answered by beki in the fifth line.
Fifth line, “kage yadoru beki”: how could its light dwell there? It could not.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kumo no ue no tanoshimi tote mo kai zo naki sate shimo yagate sumishi hateneba
- Next Poem
-
Ikade ware kiyoku kumoranu mi ni narite kokoro no tsuki no kage o migakan