Ashi yoshi o omoiwaku koso kurushikere tada arasareba ararekeru mi o

悪し善しを思ひ分くこそ苦しけれ
ただあらさればあられける身を

Roma-ji: Ashi yoshi o omoiwaku koso kurushikere tada arasareba ararekeru mi o
English Translation: It is this that pains,
to sort the bad out from the good
in all one's thinking—
if we just let things be,
we're beings who can live on.
Meaning: It is weighing good and bad that brings us pain; if we simply let things be, we are beings who can go on living as we are.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1421

Headnote: none
It is distinguishing good from bad that brings pain, the poet says; if one simply let things be, one could go on living as one is.
It sings of longing for the Buddhist state of non-discrimination, in which reasoning about right and wrong gives rise to suffering, a wish to live as one is beyond good and evil. The lower lines are hard to construe and are read here as above.

First line, “ashi yoshi o”: bad and good.
Second line, “omoiwaku koso”: koso is emphatic, answered by the realis kere.
Third line, “kurushikere”: it is painful; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “tada arasareba”: hard to construe, taken as "if one simply lets things be."
Fifth line, “ararekeru mi o”: o is a concessive exclamation, "though we are beings who can live so."
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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