聞きてしも驚くべきにあらねども
はかなき夢の世にこそありけれ
はかなき夢の世にこそありけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Kikite shimo odorokubeki ni aranedomo hakanaki yume no yo ni koso arikere
- English Translation
-
Though it is not news
that should make me start in wonder
when I hear of it,
this is but a world of dreams,
fleeting and frail as ever.
- Meaning
- It is nothing that should startle me to hear, yet this world is truly a fleeting dream.
- Commentary
-
Miscellaneous Poems 713
Headnote: "Composed on hearing that someone I had not heard was ill had passed away at dawn"
Hearing that someone not known to be ill had died suddenly at dawn, the poet says it is not news to startle him, since he knows life is fleeting, yet once again he realizes that the world is a passing dream.
The Ruijū text spells part of the headnote differently.
Line 1 means "even hearing it," shimo intensive.
Line 2 means "something to be startled at."
Line 3 means "though it is not," adversative.
Line 4 means "of a fleeting dream," taking up "it was a dream" at the end of the preceding poem.
Line 5 means "it is truly a world," koso concluded by kere; from impermanence as an idea in the preceding poem, it turns to the reality of a near one's death.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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