よそになど仏の道を尋ぬらむ
我が心こそしるべなりけれ
我が心こそしるべなりけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Yoso ni nado hotoke no michi o tazunuramu waga kokoro koso shirube narikere
- English Translation
-
Why should people search
for the Buddha's way somewhere
far outside themselves?
It is one's own heart, I find,
that serves to guide the way
- Meaning
- Why do people seek the Buddha's path somewhere outside themselves? It is one's own heart that is the guide.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 413
Why seek the Buddhist path outside oneself, the poet asks; one's own heart is the guide. Drawing on the Buddhist teaching that the Buddha dwells within one's own heart, the poem urges looking into one's own mind.
Following the preceding poem, 412, which said Buddhahood is known through accumulated practice, this poem seeks the Buddhist path within the heart, leading on to the "moon of the heart" in the next poem, 414.
The first line, "yoso ni nado," asks with the adverb "nado": why elsewhere?
The second line, "hotoke no michi o," refers to the path to the Buddha's teaching.
The third line, "tazunuramu," uses the conjectural "ramu": why do they seek it? A break falls after the third line.
The fourth line, "waga kokoro koso," singles out one's own heart with "koso," answering "kokoro no tsuki o" in the next poem's second line.
The final line, "shirube narikere," closes "koso" with the copula "nari" and perfective exclamatory "keri," a kakari-musubi: it is the guide.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Tadamichi
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Tsuyu no mi no kiete hotoke ni naru koto wa tsutomete nochi zo shiru bekarikeru
- Next Poem
-
Ikade ware kokoro no tsuki o arawashite yami ni madoeru hito o terasamu