かりそめの憂き世の闇をかき分けて
うらやましくも出づる月かな
うらやましくも出づる月かな
- Roma-ji
-
Karisome no ukiyo no yami o kakiwakete urayamashiku mo izuru tsuki kana
- English Translation
-
Parting with its hands
the darkness of this sorrowful
and passing world,
how enviously I watch
the moon as it rises out
- Meaning
- Pushing through the darkness of this fleeting, sorrowful world, the moon comes out — how I envy it!
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 370
The poet looks with envy at the moon that rises as if pushing through the darkness of this fleeting, sorrowful world. In the moon breaking free of darkness and shining clear, he sees release from worldly delusion into enlightenment, and reflects on his own inability to do so. The moon may also be read as standing for one who has taken the tonsure and left the world.
With "in what darkness shall I wander" in poem 360 and "to light those lost in darkness" in poem 414, poems on darkness and the moon echo through this book.
The first line, "karisome no," means passing and fleeting.
The second line, "ukiyo no yami o," likens this sorrowful world to darkness.
The third line, "kakiwakete," means pushing aside.
The fourth line, "urayamashiku mo," uses "mo": enviably.
The final line, "izuru tsuki kana," ends with the exclamatory "kana" on the moon emerging from darkness; "izuru" also suggests leaving the world.
- Author
- Oe no Masafusa
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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