ひとすぢにいかで杣木の揃ひけん
偽り作る心たくみに
偽り作る心たくみに
- Roma-ji
-
Hitosuji ni ikade somagi no soroiken itsuwari tsukuru kokoro takumi ni
- English Translation
-
In one single line,
how is it that all this timber
was so evenly matched?
By the craftsman of the heart
who fashions falsehood with skill.
- Meaning
- How is it that the timbers came to be lined up so evenly? By the craft of hearts skilled in fashioning falsehood.
- Commentary
-
Miscellaneous Poems 1161
Headnote: "Hearing that many people together had hidden something from one person and made it out to be otherwise, I composed this"
Hearing that many people had conspired to hide something from one person and tell it otherwise, Saigyō composed this. How did they all line up so evenly, like timber? By the skilled craftsmanship of hearts that fashion lies.
Those who matched their stories are likened to neatly dressed timber, and the "craftsman of the heart" who shaped them is satirized. It is a satirical poem stringing together carpentry words: timber, fashioning, craftsman.
First line, “hitosuji ni”: in a single line, alike, overlaying aligned timber and aligned stories.
Second line, “ikade somagi no”: ikade is "how"; somagi is timber cut from forest hills.
Third line, “soroiken”: ken conjectures a past cause, "how were they aligned?"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “itsuwari tsukuru”: fashioning lies; tsukuru is associated with carpentry.
Fifth line, “kokoro takumi ni”: takumi is skill and also a carpenter; the inversion gives the reason at the end.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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